We have enough polling agents, says Labour Party

• We never denied LP venue for rally – Delta govt

The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council has responded to a report making the rounds that the party does not have polling agents to man hundred of places where elections will be conducted across the country next month, especially in core northern states.

It dismissed the speculation and urged Nigerians to ignore the “opposition’s orchestrated propaganda” meant to weaken the LP supporters.

Spokesman for the campaign council, Yunusa Tanko, said the LP has sufficient polling agents for the presidential and other elections nationwide.

He stated this in a release issued on Sunday, adding that the Labour Party has foot soldiers “to man all polling units in the North and the entire nation.”

He also said, “The opposition’s gimmicks to weaken the resolved minds of Nigerians to vote Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed into power this year will not fly.”

The statement read, “The attention of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council has been drawn to yet another deceitful information circulating on the social media that our party has not submitted agents for 90,000 Polling Units in North-Central, North-East and North-West.

“We see this as yet another propaganda from the opposition to bring our rising influence down and deceive the electorate in an election year.

“We have volunteers all over the country that surpass even the number of agents required for each polling booth; so the issue of not being able to supply agents for the 90,000 units is a complete fallacy designed by the enemies of progress in Nigeria.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission gave a window of up to January 20 for political parties to submit their list of agents for the elections and as such cannot at this time raise concerns about any political party not being able to submit enough agents.

“The Labour Party has a task force on the recruitment and selection of agents headed by our presidential candidate Obi and his running mate Baba-Ahmed and the National Chairman and the National Secretary of the party are all members of that committee.

“The LPPCC is investigating the source of this propaganda because we know it is definitely not from the INEC.

Meanwhile, Delta State Government has said it never denied the Labour Party venue for its presidential campaign rally in the state.

It said this in a statement issued on Sunday by the state commissioner for information, Mr Charles Aniagwu.

He added the party never applied officially for any venue and was denied.

According to the commissioner, a representative of the party only spoke to him via telephone call on Sunday morning, January 8, 2023, and made demand to make use of the Arcade in Asaba.

“The state government immediately within three minutes reached out to the Oshimili South Local Government Council and secured a waiver of all formalities and made the Arcade in Asaba available for the Labour party to hold its presidential rally,” he said.

The commissioner said to demonstrate the state’s tolerance for opposition, it graciously waived the amount payable for the venue.

He urged the party to carry on its rally peacefully in line with laid down rules and regulations.

“We appeal to the Obidient family and the teeming supporters of our party to disregard the deceitful information and focus on the collection of their Permanent Voter Cards which are our collective weapons to dislodge the enemies of our dear country.”