Labour Party Reveals Why It Doesn’t Have Candidates In Some Roles

The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Kenneth Okonkwo, has said the party didn’t provide candidates for most of the various positions in the forthcoming general election because the party won’t compromise.

Before Peter Obi became the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, the party was relatively unknown in most parts of the country.

Currently, the party has gained national attention thanks to Obi, but despite this, the party has been unable to field candidates for several senatorial and House of Representatives seats, especially in places where it does not have a base.

Out of the 109 senate seats up for election, only 78 candidates from the LP were listed on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) list.

Okonkwo told Arise TV on Tuesday that the party would rather not run unqualified candidates without character, hence, the party left slots vacant.

Kenneth Okonkwo said: “Peter Obi entered the Labour Party about two weeks or three weeks before the end of the nomination time. And at the time, the party had not become as monstrously popular as it is now. So, the entrance of Peter Obi made it attractive to Nigerians who are looking for escape routes from these structures of criminality.

“So when we entered there, we discovered there were offices that were not filled and Peter Obi is a man who in an emergency won’t yield to pressure.

“He will still be committed to the capacity, competency, and character of every person. He would prefer that a seat is vacant rather than fielding incompetent people who are not of good character.

“So in those areas where there are no candidates, not because we couldn’t have drafted anybody but because of shortness of time we were not able to certify that we can comfortably vouch for all the candidates that we are putting in there because when you want to bring a new thing you don’t have to succumb to the blackmail of the opposition to in your haste come against the particular thing you want to change.

“So we were prepared to do the right thing at all times so whoever that was prepared was allowed to get in within the short time that we had “

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