Ibe Okwara Osonwa, a chieftain of the Labour Party, has bared his mind on the recent court verdict ordering the inclusion of his name in ballots for the coming main elections in 2023 in Abia State following his wrongful substitution with another aspirant after a concluded House of Representatives primary elections for Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency seat in Abia State.
Recall that a federal high court sitting in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, had on Friday 4th October, 2022 mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enlist the names and details of Chief Ibe Okwara Osonwa as authentic house of representatives candidate of the Labour Party for the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency of Abia State.
The INEC had excluded Ibe Okwara who is vying for Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency of the state under the platform of the Labour Party from a list it recently published.
As required by the Nigeria electoral act as amended recently, the electoral umpire had late September 2022 published successful candidates for National Assembly election in 2023.
Also recall that Chief Ibe Okwara Osonwa, who hailed from Amaekpu ohafia extraction of Abia north Senatorial district in Abia State, had earlier dumped the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, for the Labour Party (LP).
He emerged as the LP 2023 House of Representatives standard bearer for the Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency federal seat election after a keenly-contested primary election conducted by national leadership of the party.
Osonwa was earlier declared winner of the concluded primary election in Bende, by the returning officer, Okorie Agwu after polling total votes of the polled 152 votes to return unopposed.
However, while earlier reacted to the recent verdict contained in statesmen issued to AFRIPOST on Thursday, Ibe Okwara Osonwa regretted that his name was maliciously manipulated and thereby excluded from the list of candidates while being uploaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
His words: “we have been made aware this was facilitated by an Ohafia individual who it appears is afraid to face me at the polls and rather decided to win as they usually do through the backdoor.
“While said individual and his agents cast falsehoods over the past few months. My team and I followed due process as we strategically planned the initial stages of our campaign”.
The frontline LP national assembly hopeful expressed his immense gratitude to God for as it is said, light always trumps darkness and the people of Arochukwu/Ohafia will not be disenfranchised as it’s now a norm in the entire state.
“I am also thankful to my legal team for their sound knowledge and professionalism”, Ibe Okwara added.