The candidate of Labour Party LP, for the Imo State governorship election scheduled to hold on November, 11, Senator Athan Achonu, has denied being involved, instigating or sponsoring the crises that led to the resignation of seven state executive members of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, in Imo State.
A statement issued by the Athan Achonu Media Center, to that effect, said, ‘’ The attention of the Athan Achonu Media Centre has been drawn to misinformation in the public sphere that our principal, Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, instigated or induced executive members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Imo State, to resign from their offices and membership of the party.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the sponsored insinuation by a hireling if not because of the frequent lies being fed the public by the opposition that has been totally overwhelmed by the soaring popularity of Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, who has come to represent the only hope of Imo people for escape from the almost four years of misrule and bringadage of the current administration.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Labour Party candidate has nothing to do with the internal crisis of the PDP’’.
Senator Achonu also stated that, his emergence as the governorship candidate of Labour Party, sent shivers down the spine of the opposition, hence they resorted to peddling falsehood to deceive the Imo electorate, who have resolved to send them packing.
‘’First, they claimed that Achonu collected the sum of 1 million dollars from Governor Uzodinma for his primary election to be his proxy. When that did not work as they expected, they are now alleging that he is responsible for the self destructive tendencies rocking the PDP’’.
‘’The claim that Achonu promised to give the disenchanted PDP exco members N5 million each and a Landcruiser SUV after emerging as governor is not only puerile but a fancy too wild to imagine. This is because none of the actors, including a well known industrialist and a former Minister could be that cheap.
The reasons for the mass resignation of the state exco of PDP were clearly explained in their statement wherein they alleged threats to their lives, including assassination attempts of which the last was witnessed on Saturday hence prompting them to run for their dear lives.
It is left for the purveyors of the false news, linking Achonu with the crisis to tell the public what they know about the allegations instead of calling a dog a bad name to hang it.
It is worth noting that Achonu did not even attend the wake keep of the Ihedioha matriarch. He was in faraway Enugu State, attending the wake keep of Senator Ken Nnamani’s wife, and, therefore, could not have been present in any nocturnal meeting in Mbutu Mbaise where the alleged plot to disorganise PDP was taken.
The Labour Party’s doors remain open for new members, including those from the All Progressives Congress, APC, and other political parties that rightly see Achonu as the next occupant of Douglas House.
The PDP and other opposition parties should look inwards and deal with their crisis without looking for scapegoats.
No amount of blackmail or evil propganda can stop the Labour Party and its candidate, Senator Achonu, and his deputy, Hon. Tony Nwulu, from forging ahead with their unstoppable mission to rescue Imo from its recent misfortunes in the hands of inept and insensitive politicians’’.
