Anambra govt seals LP’s secretariat one month to LG polls

The Labour Party (LP) in Anambra State has, yesterday, decried the sealing of its office in Awka, the state capital, by the state government.

The development is coming exactly one month before the local council polls, slated to be held on September 28.
Fuming with rage, the State Secretary of LP in Anambra, C.J. OkoliAkirika, alleged that the action was carried out without notice, warning or any form of engagement with the party.

Akirika, a lawyer, pointed out that paid agents of the state government, accompanied by men dressed in military uniforms, stormed the LP’s state office, and in a commando-like operation, chased away the staff members and sealed the office.

“It is rather unfortunate, bizarre, and brazen that the Anambra State Government, which is fruitlessly seeking to truncate statutory procedures to select local government chairmen and councillors in the deviously convoluted local council elections, is now resorting to underhand, illegal, and obnoxious intimidation.”

While appealing to the teeming LP members, supporters, sympathisers, stakeholders, and people of the state in general, he contended: “The state leadership of the party shall, as law-abiding Anambrarians, have recourse to due process to contain and check this unprovoked and untrammelled illegality.”

It was gathered that LP is a major threat to free and fair local council polls in Anambra State, given the large image of its presidential candidate in the last general elections, Peter Obi, who is from the same party and Anambra Central Senatorial District with the serving Senator, Victor Umeh.

The threat against the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the local council polls is from LP with another serving Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District, Dr. Tony Nwoye.