The Labour Party (LP) in Bayelsa State has disassociated itself from certain state executive members accused of accepting N100 million from Governor Douye Diri to withdraw support for their candidate, Udengs Eradiri, in the upcoming governorship election on Saturday.
The disgruntled members assert that they have reliable information indicating that some LP executives, aligning themselves with the governor, accepted the funds with a commitment to convene a meeting to endorse Diri as their candidate, thereby abandoning their allegiance to the LP flagbearer.
Addressing the situation on behalf of grassroots members of the LP, John Toby, the Chairman of the Forum of Labour Party Local Government Chairmen in Bayelsa, expressed little surprise, noting that some executive committee members had long been identified as informants for Governor Diri within the party.
He said: “As we predicted, these EXCO members went to the governor and collected N100 million to endorse him and disown our candidate, Udengs Eradiri in a press conference.
“But God has already thrown heavy confusion in their midst because as we speak they are fighting over the money. They came back and declared N50 million to others and claimed that they sent N50 million to the national headquarters of our party.
“Who did they send the money to at the national headquarters? We have called the national party chairman and he said such money was not sent to him. We have also called other national party executive members and they denied collecting such money.
“We want to alert members of the public to be wary of these characters and masqueraders. They are only after their selfish interests because they view each election as an opportunity to make money from the state government.”
He recalled that same individuals diverted and shared money meant for Peter Obi’s presidential campaign in the state and almost sabotaged the event if not for the intervention of the Obedient Movement.
Toby said Udengs Eradiri remained the only candidate of the party and that all grassroots members of LP and the Obedient Movement in Bayelsa were solidly behind him to emerge victorious on Saturday.
He added, “All grassroots members of LP hereby disown these so-called party leaders. They are on their own. We want to make it clear that no amount of sabotage and sellout will stop the massive grassroots support already garnered by our candidate.
“Our candidate, Udengs Eradiri, has ignited the spirit of Adaka Boro in the minds of our people and they are ready to free themselves from the political stranglehold of incompetent and selfish leaders mortgaging our future and the future of our children. The people are ready to speak and they will speak with their votes against these characters.”
