‘Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
Less than twenty-four hours to the kick-off of this year’s general elections, there are no indications of any merger arrangements among the political parties in Kwara State as against speculations.
This became apparent when the Labour Party, at a press conference, dispelled talks in town that its structures in the state would, on the eve of February 25 presidential election, might enter into a merger in favour of a particular candidate of another Party.
Also, a Peace Accord arrangement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), where 14 of the known 17 parties jostling to participate in the elections signed the peace agreement, while the Labour Party, African Action Congress (AAC) and the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) were absent.
The three parties are not fielding candidates for the governorship elections in the state while the APC, PDP, YNP, NNPP, ADC among others were in attendance.
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The state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mallam Garba Attahiru Madami, at the peace meeting commended the political parties for attending the peace accord signing event and urged them to abide by the content of the peace document to the letter.
Speaking at the Labour Party press conference debunking plans to its merge with some parties for the election its, Chairman of the Party in the state, Mr. Kehinde Rotimi, dismissed the rumours that LP was planning to collapse its structure for another political party ahead of tomorrow’s presidential election.
According to him, the Party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi was still much in the race saying, “Our presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is in the race to win and restructure the country, he has been moving around the country to canvas for votes.
“He was in Offa, Kwara State, two weeks ago and from there to Osun State.
“We remain intact as one indivisible entity and optimistic about our chance to emerge victorious in the forthcoming election. We urge Nigerians and the electorates to ignore the rumour of Labour Party collapsing structures for another party and that our presidential candidate is stepping down for another candidate,” he said.
Rotimi cautioned against any unauthorized information from any individual or group going round to spread falsehood of any kind warning that that the party would take legal actions against such persons or group suspected of being behind the fake news of about the Party.