The Labour Party (LP) has described as false the news making the rounds that its Bayelsa State Chapter has abandoned its governorship candidate in Saturday’s election, Engr. Udengs Eradiri and has adopted the state governor, Douye Diri.
LP in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh also denied that party officials at the national headquarters have entered into a deal with the Bayelsa State governor to compromise the election in his favour.
“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,” the party said.
It added the statement issued by “some unauthorised party leaders” was without the consent of the state Chairman and Secretary, disclosing that its preliminary investigation on the allegation of financial compromise by the state chapter showed that the alarm was false.
The party stated that the allegation was “one of the age-long tools often deployed by political opponents to achieve a dubious edge over candidates who are the favourites of the people.
“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 a track record of performance at the highest level. His zeal to change the socio-economic status of Bayelsa is unimaginable and unprecedented.
“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.”
The LP called on the people of Bayelsa State to disregard the rumour and support the party as they have always done in the 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 the inception of this democracy.”
