By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) has called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to withdraw from the November 6 governorship poll in Anambra State, saying that they do not have valid candidates for the election.

Speaking at a press conference held at the party’s state secretariat in Awka, the Publicity Secretary of the party’s campaign council, Afam Dozie Ofomata, said the confusion created by the emergence of two candidates in PDP and APGA and the issue of the authenticity of the APC candidate was capable of confusing voters in the state.

He added: “We are urging APC, PDP as well as the APGA to immediately withdraw from the November 6 Anambra governorship election; they do not have valid candidates for the election.

“The PDP, APGA and APC have irredeemably mismanaged their nomination processes, leading to invalid candidates, endless litigations, bitter infighting, confusion and inability to forge a direction.”

“In the case of APC, it is practically a futile venture given the recent Supreme Court verdict which directed to the illegality of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led APC national leadership, a development that technically invalidated the nomination of Senator Andy Uba as candidate for the election.

“In the same vein, APGA does not have a valid candidate as the nomination of Prof. Charles Soludo has also failed elementary statutory requirements, including irreversible inaccuracies and inconsistencies that have flawed the entire nomination process.

“In PDP, the ZLP is particularly not surprised at the collapse of the PDP governorship campaign structure, as the leaders, critical stakeholders and foot soldiers of the party in Anambra have now abandon its candidate, Valentine Ozigbo, having realized that his candidacy, which did not meet the statutory nomination requirements, cannot fly.

“It is on this basis that we call on them to withdraw from the race, and cease to confuse the electorates,” Ofomata said.

He said the call is against the backdrop of the fact that key political stakeholders in Anambra have already embraced the coalition arrangement on the platform of ZLP, with Chief Obiora Okonkwo as consensus candidate.

According to him, the development has made any contest on the other parties as a wasted effort.

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