Abi/Yakurr Reps Election: We Hope To Secure Court Order For Ifere To Be On The Ballot -Labour Party Chair

Last week, INEC published the final list of candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections across the country. The name of Mr John Ifere, who has been everywhere talking about his candidacy as Labour Party flagbearer for the Abi/Yakurr seat, was missing. But the chairman of Labour Party in Cross River State, Ambassador Ogar Osim told TNN in this interview that there is no cause for alarm. 

He told GODWIN AJOM that efforts are being made by the party to secure an order of mandamus from the court for INEC to enlist Ifere as the party’s candidate.

Excerpts: 

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What is your stand in respect to the unpublished names of candidates from your party?
It is not only Labour Party candidates, it affected other political parties, so that’s how we look at it, because it is as a result of party coordination and maybe other issues. The INEC themselves have said that they have written to political parties that have their members excluded, telling them that they should send those names to the commission and it will be done. In fact, some parties have approached the courts and INEC has said in their website that those who have fulfilled all the processes and yet didn’t have their names on the list should seek redress in a court of competent jurisdiction.

But for our Labour Party, that is not the end of the road, it’s not that the omitted candidates were not qualified, it was an omission from INEC. The candidates that were not enlisted, lawfully went through all the procedures. So the party at the national level is approaching the INEC to address the situation.

Back to the state (Cross River), who is your governorship candidate and how prepared is Labour Party for the general elections at the state level?
We are fully prepared. When INEC publishes the names of candidates for House of Assembly and governorship, you will know our governorship candidate.

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Did your party hold Proper primaries for all elective positions, or you just did something for formality sake?
Why not? If we did not do proper primaries, why should INEC capture our candidates? We did all our primaries in line with INEC’s provision from House of Assembly up to Presidency; everything was monitored by INEC and in accordance to their guidelines. Labour Party is a law abiding party; we don’t cut corners.

Your party had some issue, are those issues fully resolved?
Yes, they are all resolved. We have resolved everything.

Your candidate for Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency was also omitted from the INEC list. Don’t you think this will affect your support base?
Supporters may feel demoralized, but just like as I am speaking to you, supporters have equally been reached out to, for them to know that what happened was an omission. In politics, there are ups and downs, it is never a smooth process, nowhere in the world is politics a smooth walk, it comes with different challenges.

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So all supporters should know that in this journey, we may face some challenges; so we advise all our supporters, including those of John Ifere and all other supporters to keep the faith on and continue because the party is strong. Even in Ogoja/Yala we had a similar issue, but the court has given a mandate for the INEC to recognize that candidate. As we speak, the candidate for Yala/Ogoja that wasn’t captured, has been captured. The Abuja Federal High court through Justice D.U. Okorowo, on Friday 16th of September, 2022 granted an order of mandamus, on suite number FHC/ABJ/CS/1325/2022, directing INEC to accept our candidates and enlist them on INEC’s website. So we are making remarkable progress.

So what’s the total number of candidates you have on the line up for 2023 in Cross River?
They are many, apart from Yala/Ogoja, Abi/Yakurr, Biase/Akamkpa and Obubra/Etung, we have candidates for all elective positions. We have already done replacement before the INEC list was published. So, it’s just that they weren’t captured. We have candidates across all the three senatorial districts, including the nine House of Representatives positions. The statistics is that our captured candidates on the list are nine House of Representatives candidates, plus three senatorial candidates, plus one governorship candidate, that’s13 candidates who are captured already. So we have candidates in all our constituencies. And we did primaries for all of our candidates.