It was gathered that the protesting party members, who barricaded the party office as early as 8am, sang solidarity songs, while accusing the chairman of high-handedness and compromising party’s ethics, The Guardian reports.
There is a crisis in the Labour Party, Imo State chapter as over 100 party members on Monday staged a protest at the party secretariat demanding immediate removal of the state Chairman, Ambrose Onyekwere.
It was gathered that the protesting party members, who barricaded the party office as early as 8am, sang solidarity songs, while accusing the chairman of high-handedness and compromising party’s ethics, The Guardian reports.
The protest attracted over 20 armed security personnel, who intervened, to ensure peace, as well as restore order in the area.
The aggrieved party members, most of whom were from Owerri zone of the state, and led by Aboh Mbaise Council Youth Leader, Patrick Ihekoronye, insisted that “Onyekwere must go” to save the party from imminent collapse.
The protesters further accused the chairman of playing the script of the Owerri zone senatorial candidate of the party, Ezenwa Onyewuchi, who, they alleged was replacing duly elected party officials with his loyalists against the general interests of the party.
Speaking to journalists during the protest, the leader, Ihekoronye said, “We embarked on this protest because we are aggrieved by the unlawful actions of the party’s state Chairman, who, we believe, is on a mission to sell off our party to some political merchants in the state.
“Why we are asking that Onyekwere be removed is because we have discovered he is a mole in our party. He is an APC man drafted into our party by his paymasters to collapse the party for their selfish interests, as well as to sabotage Peter Obi and our other candidates’ victory in the coming 2023 general elections. And we can’t allow that to happen.”
Similarly, the party’s Deputy Chairman for Owerri zone, Roland Obiyor, blamed Onyekwere of exhibiting actions capable of disintegrating the party in the state.
Obiyor, who alleged that the flagrant removal of elected party officials without recourse to the party’s constitution was causing harm to the party in the state, said “I think their agitation is apt in the sense that the state Chairman has caused a lot of troubles for LP in Imo. In fact, his inconsistency in administrative processes has caused harm to the party. Therefore, his continued stay might end up robbing us of the credibility we need as a party in the state.”