The leadership of Labour Party has announced that the formal inauguration of its 1,453-member Presidential Campaign Council would hold on Friday.

This is as the party disclosed that its highly anticipated campaign will be flagged off in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital, on Saturday.

This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure.

The development is coming two weeks after the outrage that greeted the earlier launch of its 1,234-member Presidential Campaign Council list.

The negative reactions forced Labour Party to review the membership of the list and make some amendments.

The party was reacting to criticisms generated by the appointment of a former Army spokesperson, Major General John Enenche (retd.), into the Presidential Advisory Council of its PCC.

Enenche, a former Director of Defence Information, who made the 1,234-man Obi-Datti campaign team as a member of the PAC from the North-Central, had claimed that the killing of #EndSARS protesters in 2020 at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos was false.

The ex-General had reportedly claimed that the Instagram live footage of DJ Switch, which showed #EndSARS protesters dying from bullets of soldiers from the Nigerian Army was photoshopped.

In the same vein, there were allegations of ethnic colouration and marginalisation of the PCC in favour of people from the South-East.

Among the complaints received, critics faulted the choice of appointment of Igbo as state coordinators, especially for Lagos and Sokoto States.

A United States-based Professor and social commentator, Farooq Kperogi, had also faulted the Labour Party campaign list, saying the party was not different from the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party.

But rising from a meeting of the National Working Committee and other stakeholders on Wednesday, Abure announced that the list has been surgically reviewed and improved.

He said, “You’ll recall that on the 12th of October, this year, we presented the campaign council lists. Obviously, there were some errors, there were some displacements. And then we had general complaints about the lists.

“As a party that is democratic, that is a listening party, we decided to take all these grievances to account. We promised that we’re going to review the lists and that we’re going to update them to accommodate all that interest.

“We have been working on the list, and I am highly elated today to announce to you that we have reviewed the list, and that is the list we are presenting today. They are available on our websites both the party’s website, and the campaign websites for members to look at.

“We also want to announce here that the campaign council and the committees will be inaugurated on Friday. Then our campaigns will kick off in Lafia, Nasarawa State on Saturday.

“It is also pertinent to put on record that it is not possible to accommodate every interest, but I want to appeal to all our supporters, I want to appeal to all those who have been working for us, who were unable to be accommodated on this list, that they should continue to do their work. They should continue to support the party. What is most important is for us to focus on the election and be able to deliver all candidates of the party including the presidential candidate,” he added.

In the newly launched harmonized list, the quartet of PCC Chairman and retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Zarewa; Director-General of the campaign, Dr Doyin Okupe; Spokesperson, Yunusa Tanko and Secretary, Mr Clement Ojukwu, retained their position.

Other members include Deputy Director-General and Campaign Manager, Oseloka Obaze; Deputy Director-General (North), Alhaji Yusuf Maitama; Deputy Director-General (South), Denzel Ketenbe; Deputy Campaign Manager I, Mr Isaac Balami; Deputy Campaign Manager II, Mrs Eyitemi Taire; Coordinator (South-West) Balogun Oshuntokun; Coordinator (South East), Damian Okeke-Ogene; Coordinator (South-South) and Prince Favour Reuben among others. (The PUNCH)

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