Cross River: Labour Party slams ‘impostors’ seeking exco dissolution, crisis

Leaders of the Labour Party in Cross River state have taken a swipe on some stakeholders of the party whom they allegedly accused of planning to cause crisis by seeking dissolution of the state executive committee when the tenure of the current committee members was yet to expire.

In a press release made available to Blueprint in Calabar, Wednesday, and signed by the State Chairman of the party, Patriarch Ogar Osim, and Publicity Secretary, Dr Ofem Lekam Ujong, the party leaders described the said stakeholders as impostors who are bent on “deceiving gullible members of the public in view of the forth coming local government elections in Cross River.”

The release read in part: “The Labour Party State Working Committee led by the dully elected State Chairman, Patriarch Ogar Osim is aware that some groups of persons are parading themselves as the leadership of Labour Party in Cross River State.

“Recall that during the general elections last year, this same group impersonated the leadership of LP in the state. They deceived the general public and even went ahead to produced candidates through an illegal primary they conducted at their office.

“At the end, none of those so-called candidates produced through their primaries, were recognized by INEC. They have risen again to deceive more innocent citizens.

“It is necessary to state clearly that there is no vacuum in Labour Party Cross River State as the current Chairman, Patriarch Ogar Osim and his team of Executives were dully elected at a Congress monitored and documented by INEC in March 2022 for a four-year tenure as enshrined in the party’s constitution in article 16 sub section 1

“That article says that All National and State Officers of the party shall hold office for a period of 4 years per tenure and a maximum of 2 tenures per member for the respective office.”

The Labour Party leaders charged the media to uphold the ethics of journalism in terms of objectivity, news balancing and fairness so that the public would not “become victims of illegal and mischievous activities” of the said stakeholders.