Ahead of the release of the final list of eligible candidates to contest 2023 General Election by INEC, the leadership of Labour Party (LP), has invited all stakeholders to a two day retreat in Abuja.
Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, national secretary of LP, issued the notice of invite to the retreated scheduled for 12th and 13th of September 2022.
Expanding on this notice, the national organizing secretary of LP, set out the criteria for attending, “ all Party candidates that have it’s clearance from the national office of Labour party in terms of payment of forms with receipt from the national office is invited and come along with the payment receipt is required for entrance with all required party acknowledgement.”
According to a member of LP, this retreat, is like putting the horse before the cart. She argues that, what is required is National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, to ratify all that National Working Committee (NWC) had done, particularly giving waivers to politicians who joined Labour Party and were given LP’s ticket, without them being member of LP for 6 months as required by LP Constitution.
She further expressed concern that many of those parading themselves as LP ticket holders in many states, will not be recognized by INEC as no primaries were held to elect them in accordance with the provisions of Electoral Act and INEC Guideline For 2023 Election.
She further said that no state congresses were held to choose delegates to participate in the primaries that produced these flag bearers, a clear violation of the Electoral Act and Labour Party’s Constitution.
Another Comrade, responding, insisted that the retreat is a NEC meeting and that the nomenclature “retreat” does not take away its powers and what it sets out to achieve, particularly on resetting the disquiet over imposition of candidates by the NWC.
