Dons Eze
LABOUR PARTY OPTS OUT OF ENUGU LG ELECTION
After a stakeholders meeting held on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, the Labour Party,, Enugu East Local Government, has announced their withdrawal from the state local government election slated for this Saturday.
In a communique signed by some leaders of the party in the local goverment, including the Chairman, Chief Sunday Nome, the House of Representatives Member, Prof. Sunday Nnamchi, among others, Enugu East Local Government Labour Party wrote, “we wish to inform all the members of Labour Party in Enugu East Local Government and the general public that our party shall not be participating in the Saturday Local Government election in Enugu State.
“We have carefully observed events leading to this upcoming local government election and we note with dismay that the electoral umpire; ENSIEC, and the ruling party, are not ready to ensure that the election goes free and fair.
“As we all know, local government, being the third tier of the government, is the closest to the people and as such, our objective should be couched on electing credible individuals into the various positions in the local government but unfortunately, the electoral umpire has already designed the election to favour the ruling party in the state.
“The above claim is built on the following reasons
i) Glaring disregard for the Labour Party, Enugu East Local Government, Congress that gave birth to our candidates. It’s worthy to note that the Labour Party held ward congresses to elect our councillorship candidates across the 12 wards in the local government and also held local government congress to elect our chairmanship candidate; Ibezim Denis Ekete.
“The Enugu East Local Government, Labour Party Chairman, Chief Sunday O. Nome (JP) in a letter dated 6th August 2024, wrote to ENSIEC, forwarding the names of the party’s successful candidates for the elections.
“Sadly, the electoral umpire chose to publish another names which were not approved by the party
ii) The Court’s inability to entertain our case:
“In our bid to seek redress in court, we filed a suit at the state High Court with suit no: E/637M/2024.
“Ordinarily, the state High Court ought to have assigned our case to a vacation court but unfortunately, they assigned our case to a regular court, which is presently on vacation and not allowed to entertain electoral matter at this time.
This implies that our case will not be entertained until after the election. Thereby, preventing us from getting the Justice we seek.
“In the light of the above, we urge all our party faithfuls to shun the election and continue to support the party as the party is committed to building an enduring society and we also wish to impore all our party faithfuls to remain steadfast, even as the ruling party is trying to infiltrate the party with those who are not aligned to the labour party’s visions.
“We assure them our resolve to pick out all the bad eggs that have infiltrated the party through the back door.
‘Also, we note the last expanded Stakeholders meeting of the Labour Party held at Abia State, where we appointed a caretaker committee to steer the affairs of the party vis-a-vis conduct the Ward and state congresses and National Convention of the party, which will birth new leadership capable of leading the party to its greatest height.
“Finally we also implore our candidates to remain peaceful and look forward to the greater future ahead.”
