• Sues opposition members over accusations

From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja

Ahead of the gubernatorial election in Edo State billed to hold on September 21, National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has boasted his party will produce an eminently qualified candidate that will be acceptable by the generality of the state.

Abure also dismissed insinuations from various quarters that he is launching ambition to be the candidate of the party, adding his goal was to conduct a free, fair and credible primary ahead of September.

The LPchairman, who stated this in Abuja at the party’s national secretariat, also disclosed he had taken some legal actions against those who were involved in disparaging his image and that of the party, adding the cases were pending in court.

“I am not contesting the governorship position in Edo State. I am not interested. I will continue to get people to conduct free, fair and credible primary that will give us the best candidate for the best of the party.

“I believe with the membership strength of the party, the issue of place-holding candidates as of today will now be a thing of the past.

“In Edo, for instance, we have eminently qualified people who are vying for the position of governor. Same goes for other states where we are going to have elections. The competition is there.

“So, we will no longer be in a position where we will be dealing with the issue of place holders. We just did an election in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo and you saw that candidates vying for those positions and who emerged were those that had their forms uploaded,

“And even in this case of forgery, the high court gave us a judgment. We have the scanned documents as evidence and we will make them available to you. This was one of the reasons I did not want to speak on the matter and for those of them who are lawyers, we have written petitions against them,” he said.

The politician some some of the people instigating internal wrangling within the party were members that were used by the party as place-holders for positions in some states pending when the party was able to get credible candidates.

According to him, both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have both failed the country, saying the Labour Party, under him, would no longer be transactional.

He urged members to remain committed, steadfast and continue to have confidence in the leadership of the party to ensure a new and better Nigeria is achieved.