The leadership of Labour Party (LP) says Ms Oluchi Oparah, its former National Treasurer, is not the National Woman Leader of the party.

This is contained in a statement by issued the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, on Thursday in Abuja.

Ifoh said that Oparah was suspended indefinitely in November 2023 as a member of Labour Party for alleged anti-party activities, adding that her suspension is still subsisting.

He said that Oparah was never the national woman leader of the party and that she had never contested to be one at any point in time.

“A person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others is an impostor.

“Therefore, her recent actions, using the office of the National Woman Leader of the Labour Party to seek pecuniary patronage amount to impersonation.

“This development has immensely embarrassed the Labour Party, hence this disclaimer,” he said.

According to him, the national woman leader of the party is Mrs Dudu Manuga.

“She alone is constitutionally mandated to oversee the activities of millions of Labour Party women in Nigeria and across the globe.

“We are, by this disclaimer, alerting organisations including the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), The Kukah Foundation, Non-Governmental Organisations, political associations, National Assembly, and security agencies to be aware of her dubious activities,” he said.

Ifoh warned any individual or organisation being approached by Oparah to contact the police immediately. (NAN)

Chairman of Cross River Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC), Dr Ekong Boco, says 10 political parties will be participating in the Saturday local government elections.

Boco stated this on Thursday in Calabar during the commencement of distribution of sensitive materials to all the 18 local government areas in the state.

He, however, debunked the speculations that the materials had already been sent to the council areas.

Boco, who showed everyone the ballot papers before the commencement of distribution, urged political parties to keep supporting the commission until the election was ‘done and dusted’ on Saturday.

“We will be using 3,281 polling units, as approved by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 9,843 ad-hoc staff, 460 supervisors, 18 returning officers and 198 collation officers,” he said.

The CROSIEC chairman said that all the ad-hoc staff were trained from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27, including the returning officers and ward collation officers, expressing the hope that they would conduct themselves well during the exercise.

“We want everyone to see that the process is transparent and the commission is clean,” he said.

Boco further stated that the voting, which would be manual, would commence by 8 a.m. and end by 2 p.m.

In his remarks, the State Chairman of Inter party Advisory Council (IPAC), Mr Effiom Edet, said that the council had observed the process by the commission, expressing the confidence that the election would be free, fair and credible.

“We have not noticed in anyway where results were signed for any political party and so we want to let the people know that something like that cannot happen,” he said.

Report says that Friday has been declared public holiday by the state government to ensure effective preparation for the polls. (NAN)

From Yagana Ali, Yola

The former senator representing Adamawa north senatorial district senator Ishaku Abbo, said democracy was under threat under the corrupt judicial system in Nigeria.

Abbo said this while interacting with journalists in Yola.

Sharing his experiences on what led to his removal from the national Assembly, Abbo said the judiciary is full of corrupt judges and judiciary states that negotiated with people to win cases.

He said the verdict given to him is not what is delivered during the trial at the Supreme Court when his seat is challenged.

“Any judicial system that is characterized by corrupt judiciary staff that negotiate with plaintiff to win a case, that means democracy is under treat”

Abbo said he has many text messages and interactions of the negotiation that were offered to him to maintain his seat at the assembly by one of the senior staff of the Supreme Court with a video footage when he is visited in a hotel in Abuja.

The Supreme Court should have asked for a rerun election in the polling unit which they claim has issues rather than just declaring his opponent the winner.

But he took what happened as a blessing in disguise because he now learns many lessons from what transpired during the case.

Abbo furthermore said he is making consultations on his next political ambition and will go along with what his people want because he is a man of the People, he said.