The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has released the final list of candidates or the November 11 gubernatorial election in Imo State.
In all, 17 parties are contesting the elections with their candidates.
A major feature of the list is Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, who is the flag bearer of the Labour Party, LP, alongside his running mate, Hon. Tony Nwulu.
The INEC final list has conclusively authenticated Achonu as the undisputed LP candidate.
Coming this far did not come easy for the One-Arm General (Agu Otu Aka), as Achonu is fondly called. He fought hard like a wounded lion before he could subdue the sponsored vicious propaganda and manifest mischief against his candidature.
Recall that former members of the LP led by Lamidi Apapa had shown unusual interest in who should fly the Imo Labour Party flag in the election, and therefore, pulled all heinous schemes to truncate Achonu’s emergence.
Achonu had trounced other contestants in the party’s gubernatorial primaries but unsettled by the victory of Achonu, the only person adjudged capable of dislodging Governor Hope Uzodinma from office, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, unleashed all manner of attacks on Achonu, using unconscionable hirelings.
It began by sponsoring falsehood on social media that Achonu collected $1 million from the governor to front for him. It was a very wicked lie that took its toll but Achonu surmounted that.
When they realised that the propaganda had failed, they resorted to instigating division in the party and throwing up impostors as the LP candidates, who, despite clear court judgements, twisted everything and misrepresented the true position of things until the Supreme Court finally nailed every opposition to Achonu’s candidature last week.
It is now clear to everyone that are claimants to the LP ticket, including Basil Maduka, Ikenga Ukaegbu and Ike C. Ibeh, have been shut up forever, as Achonu remains the candidate of the LP as the party at the national and state had consistently clarified.
Ndi Imo now have a golden opportunity to reclaim their state on November 11 by rejecting criminal looting, rudderless administration and mass murders and destruction that bedeviled the APC government in the state, and massively voting for Achonu.
A vote for the Labour Party and Achonu is a vote for a new and purposeful Imo where life matters; where peace, security, employment and prosperity shall boom.
