LP national caretaker committee backs boycott of Anambra LG election

The newly inaugurated 29-member National Caretaker Committee of the Labour Party, headed by former minister Senator Nenadi Usman, has thrown its weight behind the growing calls for members to pull out of Saturday’s local government election over alleged violations of the Electoral Act by the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission.

Last week, the LP spokesperson in Anambra, Theo Egbe, announced the plan to boycott the forthcoming September 28, LG poll.

Egbe hinged their threat on the controversial list of qualified LP candidates published by ANSIEC, which he said did not emanate from them.

The party claimed that it neither conducted any primaries to nominate candidates nor submitted any names to the state electoral umpire.

Reacting via a statement issued on Wednesday, the Usman-led committee of the Labour Party backed the call by the Anambra LP executives led by its Chairman, Chief Ugochukwu Emeh, for members to pull out of the local government election.

The statement read, “The National Leadership of Labour Party is aware and is in total support of the position of Labour Party Anambra State led by Chief Ugochukwu Emeh (Chairman) and Okoli Akirika (Secretary) and other stakeholders that LP is not participating in the proposed Anambra State Local Government Election scheduled to hold on 28/9/24 based on violations of the Electoral Act and Nigerian Constitution.

“We are also aware that the Labour Party is already in court in Suit No A/265/2024 Labour Party vs Anambra State House of Assembly and another suit No FHC/CV/AWK/223/2024 Labour Party vs ANSIEC &14 others challenging the procedure for the proposed LGA election and never sponsored any Candidate to contest the questioned Anambra State LGA election.

“The National Caretaker Committee of the Labour Party hereby confirms that we have not constituted any caretaker committee in any state of the federation and that our party in Anambra State is presently led by Chief Ugochukwu Emeh and Okoli Akirika. This is for official and record purposes.”

Efforts to get the reaction of LP National Chairman Julius Abure were unsuccessful.

The National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, also declined to speak elaborately on the issue.

He said, “Our answer to any question related to the illegal caretaker committee remains the same. We don’t recognise or know them.”