By NewsCritic Reporters
The Labour Party, LP, leadership in Abia State has come under severe attacks over its style of selection of candidates for the chairmanship seat in the forthcoming Local Government Area poll slated for November 2nd, 2024.
According to the election time-table released by the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission, ABSIEC, the political party primaries will hold on the 4th of October. However, for the Labour Party what the party succeeded in doing was to anoint a preferred candidate and then impose them on the electorates without conducting any party primaries.
The case of Umuahia North is generally annoying to many stakeholders and political watchers, who believed that Gov Alex Otti will conduct a credible and transparent LGA poll, starting with the primaries. The disappointment among political observers is palpable, as Gov Otti was quoted to have told political associates and party leaders that he would use the LGA chairmanship seat to compensate his allies and those who worked for his emergence as governor since 2015.
Analysts are miffed that Gov Otti who rode to power on the people’s mandate, and seen as one who would promote competence in leadership is the one advocating for loyalty as the basis for the selection of candidates for the chairmanship of the LGAs, Umuahia North inclusive. This is coming at a time the electorates are demanding for the election of candidates with track record of achievements into the Council areas, especially now that the autonomy of the councils have been put in place.
Some concerned stakeholders who spoke to this newspaper said that Otti will go down in history as the Governor who conducted the worst LGA poll in the state, adding that what he has done is tantamount to appointment and not election because there is no indication that election is taking place in the state.
Also, delegates for the primaries couldn’t even explain when and how the primaries were conducted to select a candidate, describing the scenario that played out and led to the imposition of an unpopular candidate as largely disappointing.
They said that Gov Otti’s hidden agenda could be seen right from the outset, insisting that the LGA autonomy has been destroyed and will not work in Abia under Otti, because he has succeeded in imposing his allies at the grassroots leadership. Some are of the view that they will mobilize and vote for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to mock LP in the November 2 poll.
NewsCritic reports that Chief Chris Akachukwu Nwa-Abia, the leading candidate for the Chairmanship of Umuahia North is riding on a popular and widespread support, among both the Ohuhu and Ibeku clans, as he is the favourite choice of the electorates. The party’s leadership under Otti according to them has succeeded in dashing the hopes of the majority of the electorates, who had wished to see the LGA transformed under Chris Nwa-Abia.
Already, there are calls on Chris Nwa-Abia to leave the party, while others said he should remain with LP, and continue to work for the success of the Party in Abia despite the betrayal. Chief Chris Nwa-Abia is yet to make any comment on this development that culminated in the imposition against the wish of the generality of the people.
