By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Less than 48 hours to the polls, the leadership of the Labour Party has described as false and unsubstantiated the news making the rounds that its Bayelsa State chapter has ditched its governorship candidate in the November 11, election, Engr. Udengs Eradiri and has declared its support for the state governor, Douye Diri.
According to a press statement signed by Comrade Obiora Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party, the party’s attention was also drawn to a statement issued by some unauthorized party leaders without the consent of the State Chairman and Secretary who supposedly withheld their individual support for Labour Party candidate.
It said that the party leadership also read a statement by the Chairman of the Forum of Labour Party Local Government Chairmen as well as the interview granted by our candidate with a national television today (Thursday) on the matter.
The statement read in parts:
“We sincerely do believe that all these issues are clearly a manifestation of political intrigues and clearly an attempt by the opposition elements to frustrate our chances at achieving victory at the polls
Our preliminary investigation on the allegation of financial compromise by the state chapter clearly shows that the alarm was false and has remain one of the age long tools often deployed by political opponents to achieve dubious edge over candidates who are the favourites of the people.
We need to however state categorically that no party official from the national headquarters has entered into any deal with the Bayelsa State governor to compromise the election.
We are in this race to win and we are sure that no amount of dirty politicking can stop the Labour Party and its candidate, a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC from winning the election. Comrade Eradiri is young, popular, experienced and with track record of performance at the highest level. His zeal to change the socio economic status of Bayelsa is unimaginable and unprecedented. READ ALSO:
- CAF WCL: How Edo Queens sent defending champions Sundowns home
- Enriching Futures: The Ayanfe Kristi Example
- CBN to sanction banks for disbursing cash to Naira hawkers
- FG to enroll Almajiri, Out-of-School Children in Classrooms
- CAFWCL: Edo Queens Overcome Sundowns, Seal S/Final Spot
We therefore believe that the unfounded rumour is being orchestrated by our political opponents. We also use this opportunity to call on our candidate, Eradiri to be focused and not to be distracted from the goals before him. He must ensure that the entire party structure is put into maximal use to achieve the needed success.
Finally, we urge Bayelsa people to disregard the rumour and support the party as they have always done in time past, particularly, in the recently concluded presidential election where the state voted for Labour Party massively. They must file out and vote for the Labour Party and vote out these personalities who have held the state down since inception of this democracy”.
Prompt News reports that Labour Party’s Bayelsa state governorship candidate Comrade Udengs Eradiri on Thursday alleged that the leadership of his party in the state have been compromised by his rivals and vowed to push ahead, believing that he will still win the November 11 Governorship Election because the majority of citizens of Bayelsa are full behind him to become the next governor of the state.
