Imo guber: Achonu is still our governorship candidate – LP

The Imo State chapter of the Labour Party, LP, announced on Friday that Senator Athan Achonu’s candidacy for governor in the next election on November 11 has not been nullified by a court.

This was announced in a statement signed by Mr. Calistus Ihejiagwa, Party Chairman of the State, and distributed to journalists in Owerri.

While responding to claims that Achonu had been fired by an Appeal Court sitting in Owerri on Friday, Ihejiagwa called the reports “deceitful and mischievous.”

He insisted that the party’s nomination of Achonu stood.

Mr. Basil Maduka, a party member, allegedly petitioned the Federal High Court in Yenagoa to remove Achonu and install Chief Joseph Ukaegbu, another party member.

According to him, the case was dismissed on June 23 after the Court, presided over by Justice B.O. Quadri, found that it lacked jurisdiction over the matter and that it was without merit.

The court found that Ukaegbu “lacked the locus standi to institute the action” because he did not vote in the party’s primary election, he said.

Ihejiagwa called the rumors of Achonu’s supposed firing by the Court “dirty politics and a misrepresentation of the Court,” and he advised the public to ignore them.

He declared, “Sen. Athan Achonu is and remains the valid governorship candidate of our great party, LP.”