The leadership of the Labour Party has dismissed a letter written to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by a factional group of the party led by Lamidi Apapa, declaring Anderson Uwadiae Asemote and Monday Ojore Mawa as the gubernatorial and Deputy governorship candidates of the party.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiorah Ifoh, on Sunday, clarifying that the letter did not emanate from the party and that the authors of the letter in circulation were fraudulent and desperate people seeking recognition.
Ifoh explained that letters or correspondences are expected to be received with a stamp of acknowledgement and due verification conducted afterwards.
The Party, thereafter, asked INEC to henceforth, verify signatories of any future correspondence before acknowledgement to forestall impersonation.
“As it is done in every corporate or governmental institution, letters or any correspondence are received with a stamp of acknowledgement. As it is a custom, if you write any letter to INEC, the commission is expected to receive it after due verification.
“Though acknowledgement of a correspondent does not imply recognition or acceptance of its content, we, however, insist that INEC must henceforth verify signatories of any future correspondences as it concerns the Labour Party before acknowledgement”.
He further recalled that on the 22nd of February, two other political parties namely, APC and PDP had their parties’ primaries and that on the following day, the Labour Party also had its primaries where it elected Olumide Akpata as its candidate.
Ifoh added that INEC knows there was no other primary election by the Labour Party, as it did not supervise any other one but the one conducted by the party led by Abure.
“INEC knows that they just brought names; there was no primary.
“How come they did a primary and the media did not know? When and where did they conduct their delegate election? Was it by direct or indirect election?
“These men are just a bunch of desperate people looking for easy money from desperate politicians”.
Ifoh maintained that there is no faction in the party and urged Nigerians to distance themselves from any other list or winner, insisting that Olumide Akpata is the only candidate being sponsored by the Labour Party.