The Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party (LP) has said Ikechukwu Ukaegbu is the governorship candidate of the Labour Party for Imo State and not Athan Achonu.
It therefore said it has ‘voided’ the governorship flag-off of Ukaegbu for the November 11 governorship election in the state.
The Julius Abure faction had held its flag off on Wednesday in Owerri where it unveiled Athan Achonu as its candidate.
Abure, LP presidential candidate Peter Obi and Abia State governor, Alex Otti, attended Achonu’s campaign flag-off, where the party declared its readiness to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) incumbent, Governor Hope Uzodimma.
However, hours after the event, the Apapa camp said it held an emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, late Wednesday, where the flag-off was declared null and void.
The Apapa camp has insisted that Ikechukwu Ukaegbu is the authentic candidate of the LP for the Imo governorship election.
Ukaegbu emerged as candidate in a parallel primary conducted by the Apapa faction on April 16 but a day earlier, April 15, Achonu was elected as the party’s flag bearer in an election held by Abure’s camp.
The Apapa camp announced that it had voided Achonu’s campaign flag-off in a statement released on Thursday.
The statement, signed by Apapa, as Acting National Chairman, Saleh Lawan,
Acting National Secretary and Arabambi Abayomi, National Publicity Secretary, also faulted Peter Obi for endorsing Achonu.
“The Labour Party (LP) National Working Committee (NWC) in an emergency meeting yesterday, Wednesday, 23rd August, 2023, have disclaimed Mr Peter Obi’s assertion and voided the illegal, unlawful and unauthorised Imo State Gubernatorial Campaign Flag-Off of Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, awaiting the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting concurrence today, Thursday 24th August, 2023,” the statement said.
“Abure and others illegally and unlawfully conducted unauthorised gubernatorial primaries of the Labour Party (LP) in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states on 15th April, 2023; while Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa conducted the legally valid primaries on 16th April, 2023, that has been adjudged by the Owerri High Court judgment of 23rd June, 2023, and Appeal Court judgment of 18th July, 2023, that upheld Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph Ikenga as the authentic Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Imo State,” the statement added.
The Apapa camp, in the statement, further alleged that Abure and members of his executive committee “colluded with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to upload illegal names on the INEC portal because they had the INEC portal codes which they have refused to hand over to Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa”.