The Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Enyinaya Abaribe, has said that the Labour Party, LP, is prepared to sweep all the contestable positions in Abia in the forthcoming 2027 general elections.
Abaribe stated this during the Labour Party screening of aspirants at the party’s national secretariat, Abuja on Thursday, adding that Abia, which is being controlled by the labour party, has shown capacity through the provision of mass-oriented developmental projects.
Abaribe led the delegation of Abia aspirants who came for the screening exercise and highlighted that the State Governor has given the people a desired representation and dividend of democracy.
He said, “We are here to be screened as the constitution requires, and we trust the judgment of the screening committee whose job is to select ably qualified candidates.
“Abia State is for the Labour Party and the ,Labour Party is Abia State. And having said this I would state here that the party will win all elections beginning from Governorship to Senatorial, House of Representatives and the State Assembly.”
Also speaking, Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, the member representing the Abia North and South federal constituency, expressed confidence that the party will come out on top in the election.
Ikwechegh said no one procured form to run against him in Aba South and North Federal constituency because “we have performed well and also because of the way that our party tends to conduct their political activities.”
He added, “You can see that the Labour Party is on the rise. You can see that Abia is on the rise. So I’m confident that on the 30th, when the primaries will eventually be conducted, that we are going to emerge victorious since it’s very apparent that no one else has procured the nomination form to run against us.”
On what he thinks about some heavyweights that seem to be dropping out of the race, especially through the use of consensus by political parties, he said, “The truth is that I am not a member of the APC. I’ve never been a member of the APC. There was a time before I joined the Labour Party that it was speculated that I was going to join the APC, and that the president had induced me to join the APC. That is not true.
“There are so many people in the National Assembly that I never thought in my lifetime would lose in the APC primaries but they have.
“So I want to just say we are the Labour Party and we are continuing with our Labour Party activities. Now, for consensus, most governors don’t actually have anything to do with the consensus arrangement. It is the stakeholders within the local government, the constituencies, and the senatorial districts. Of course, the governor would definitely have a say, but not the final say.
“Stakeholders will recommend somebody and say this is who we want, and then the governor will oblige.”
On his own, the Deputy Chairman, House of Reps committee on Federal Capital Territory, FCT Judiciary, Ibe Okwara Osonwa, said the party has decided to use consensus because it does not want rancour and crisis within its folds.
He said, “As a state, we do not want rancour. Nobody is blind to see what is happening across the country with our ruling party and seeing the confusion that exists.
“But the magnanimity and the statesmanship of our governor and his thoughts that peace must prevail, unity must prevail, interaction of the people must prevail.
“So, all stakeholders were brought together. We discussed each area and we agreed that, oh yeah, this person, that person, that person, will serve the best interest of the people. And that’s how we worked it.”
2027: Labour Party will sweep Abia State – Senator Abaribe vows
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