The Imo State Labour Party crisis has taken a new twist as two factions of the party held separate primary elections, producing two different governorship flag bearers.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Senator Athan Achonu and Ikechukwu Ukaegbu emerged as the winners of the respective primaries. Ukaegbu won in an affirmative election, with one aspirant, Ihechi Ike, stepping down for him.
The National Vice Chairman of the party, Mohammed Ibrahim Alkali, announced Ukaegbu as the winner and handed him the party flag, stating that due process was followed in the election.
The National Youth Leader of the party, Anselem Iragbe, also affirmed that the Sunday election met all legal requirements. However, Iragbe stated that the Julius Abure-led faction that conducted the Saturday primary election was not legally bound to do so. He revealed that an FCT High Court had issued a restraining order on April 4, asking Abure, the National Chairman, his treasurer, and the organizing secretary to stop parading themselves as officials of the Labour Party. Iragbe argued that this meant that the election conducted on Saturday did not stand according to the law.
Meanwhile, the Abure-led faction had earlier conducted its own primary election on Saturday, with Senator Athan Achonu emerging as the winner with 134 votes. In his acceptance speech, Ukaegbu vowed never to surrender his ticket to anyone, stating that he had prepared for this moment for twelve years and was not an opportunist.
He said “I thank you all for making this happen today, I want to assure you that I will make you proud, I will never surrender my ticket to anybody, I have prepared for this for twelve years and one thing I would like to tell you again is that I’m not an opportunist, together we would build Imo of our dream”.
