Concerned Imo Labour Party Youths has appealed to delegates to the party’s governorship primary not to sell out to the ruling All Progressives Congress, urging them to elect Joseph Ukaegbu as Labour’s gubernatorial candidate.

The governorship primary is scheduled for April 13.

The group’s leader, Emmanuel Ekeji, made the appeal while addressing journalists on the resolution reached at its meeting in Owerri.

He stated, “We urge party delegates to ensure they don’t hand over LP structure in the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The rate of infiltration into the Labour Party is expected, but we don’t expect delegates to be deceived into electing alleged APC surrogates to hold the LP ticket.”

Mr Ekeji described Mr Ukaegbu, popularly called Chief Ikenga, “as the only gubernatorial aspirant of the party, who had been with the party from scratch.” He said all other aspirants, who did not care about Labour Party, “joined now because of the wave of the Obidient Movement.”

He also pointed out that Mr Ukaegbu was a pioneer member and candidate of the party in 2019, who gave other candidates a good challenge and refused alleged offers by political parties to woo him.

“This has come through with the emergence of Mr Peter Obi as the LP presidential candidate. Today, Chief Ikenga is standing on the stage side by side fellow great sons of Imo, who are equally in the race for the Imo governorship ticket. One of them must bear the flag for LP in the forthcoming Imo governorship election in November,” stated Mr Ekeji.

A zonal coordinator of the group, Osinachi Mbaoma, said it was better to elect “the only original LP member among the aspirants than make the mistake to sell Imo LP to APC.”

Mr Mbaoma said, “Chief Ikenga has the required wisdom and intellectual sagacity to turn the fortunes of Imo around, especially with his global network and experience. He is an investor par excellence who knows exactly how to unlock the prosperity of Imo. Indeed, he has the solution for Imo.”

(NAN)