The Labour Party candidate in the Edo State September 21 governorship election, Olumide Akpata, has said he will not allow the internal crisis rocking the party to distract him from his ongoing campaign, The Courage.
He said he believed that the LP internal crisis would not stop Edo people from voting for him if they believed in his message.
Akpata spoke to journalists on Sunday in Benin, the state capital.
Lamenting the protracted LP internal crisis, he said, “If we were having primaries, I would be bothered. But this is a state election and our target audience is the people of Edo State. They’re the electorate. It is their votes that we need. It is not in contention that I am the candidate of the Labour Party. Nobody is contesting that.
“Every organisation must have its issues as long as human beings are there. So, the best way is to stick to what the law says, then you can’t go wrong. But we are trying our best by keeping faith with our internal dispute resolution mechanism to ensure that we find a solution.
“There’s no doubt that a united house is better than a divided house. We move on. I don’t think any voter in Edo will say because there is a quarrel between two people inside one place, they will not go and vote for Olu Akpata.
“They’ll listen to the message that Olu Akpata has for them. If they are convinced, they will vote. If they’re not convinced, they won’t vote. All these crises are just side attractions.”
A fresh crisis started in the party on May 25 with the suspension of the National Chairman, Julius Abure, from the membership of the party in Ward 3 in Arue-Uromi, Esan North-East Local Government Area of Edo State.
The ward accused Abure of high-handedness and anti-party activities.
Abure’s suspension by the ward was affirmed by the state exco led by Kelly Ogbaloi.
However, the national body responded by dissolving the Ogbaloi-led exco on May 27 and installed in a caretaker committee headed by a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Elizabeth Ativie.
On Friday, Ogbaloi and Ativie were at a stakeholders’ meeting hosted by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in Benin, causing concerns among other stakeholders that were present.
The crisis took a new dimension with the suspension of Ativie over alleged gross misconduct and insubordination.
The decision was taken on Saturday evening at an enlarged meeting of the LP State Working Committee. The enlarged meeting was attended by local government chairmen and secretaries of the party.
However, Ativie said she remained the authentic state chairman of the party and was not aware of any meeting suspending her.
She said, “They should know that by the constitution of the Labour Party, no ward or local government chairman has the authority to suspend anybody or the chairman. “It is dead on arrival. I am the current state Labour Party chairman in Edo state.”
