Bayelsa, Kogi, Imo Governorship Elections: 4 Reasons Why Labour Party Candidates Were Defeated

Legit.ng journalist Adekunle Dada has over 5-year-experience covering metro and government policy

The off-cycle governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states have come and gone but the performances of the Labour Party (LP) candidates are far below expectations.

While attention was on the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the LP candidates were expected to put up a good fight, that Nigerians did not see.

In this article, Legit.ng will highlight the factors that contributed to the defeat of the LP candidates.

Peter Obi factor

During the 2023 general election in February and March, a lot of LP candidates benefited from the fact that Peter Obi was contesting and was on the ballot. There was so much love and goodwill from Nigerians that most LP candidates took advantage of it and won their elections.

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However, this was not the case on Saturday, November 11. Every candidate has to fight for his votes as using Obi, the face of the party to get votes was not feasible.

Absence of Social Media Buzz

The Obidients movement was the wave of the moment during the 2023 general elections. The Obi supporters took over the social media space and were never ashamed to voice their opinions.

The popularity of the Labour Party and its candidates was huge and loud from X (formerly known as Twitter) to Facebook and others. And it was easy to conclude that many people joined the movement because of the buzz.

The reverse was the case in the off-season election.

Labour Party candidates in Imo, Bayelsa and Imo

The calibre of candidates the Labour Party presented during the off-season election were not in the class of their opposition aside from Senator Athan Achonu in Imo state.

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In Bayelsa state, the LP candidate, Engineer Udengs Eradiri, former President of the Ijaw Youth Council and Commissioner for Youth Development in 2018, could not pull up to a thousand votes in the eight local government areas of the state.

It was difficult to track the performance of Okeme Adejoh, the Labour Party candidate in Kogi state.

Senator Achonu seems like the only candidate who has a connection with the people.

Division

Division was another factor that led to the poor showing of the LP at the governorship election.

In Kogi state, a faction of the party adopted the PDP candidate, Senator Dino Melaye about a week before the election.

The case was not different in Imo state, as the Lamidi-Apapa faction dragged Achonu to court to disqualify him from contesting.

Achonu emerged from Julius Abure’s faction while the Apapa faction produced Ukaegbu Joseph

Labour Party's candidate Udengs loses polling unit in Bayelsa

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that in an unexpected turn of events, Eradiri lost his polling unit to the opposition party.

Udengs lost his polling unit to the incumbent and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Douye Diri.

Governor Diri polled the majority of votes in unit 05, Ward 10, Yenagoa local government area of the state. Diri got 130 votes while Udengs had eight votes in the election at the ward.

Source: Legit.ng