The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) on Thursday, flagged off its Local Government Area election campaign for the 17 councils in Abia State. The campaign rally which attracted a mammoth crowd at the Enyimba Stadium, caused heavy gridlock around East Street and other major roads in Aba South LGA.
It was gathered that Abia LP has been divided into two camps with one loyal to Governor Alex Otti while the other is loyal to the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee. The information available to this medium has it that the Governor’s camp has left for the ZLP to contest the November 2 council election.
After receiving the flag of the ZLP at the rally, chairmanship candidate for Isuikwuato council, Mr Chinedu Ekeke, who spoke on behalf of the other 16 candidates of the party, promised to introduce a people-oriented style of leadership at the grassroots and urged Abia people to support the ZLP.
“Abia people should expect different kind of leadership where the people come first where you sleep and think of how to improve the lives of average citizen of the local government. Abia people should also expect that the small man will be protected. That the person who knows nobody in power has as much as right as the person whose family member or a friend is in power.
“I equally urge Abia people to expect that life will be a bit easier for them than it has always been,” he said.
Speaking on the chances of ZLP emerging victorious at the election, Ekeke said, “It is the people that make up a party. If a nonexistent party was able to make a dent on the history and antecedents of veteran presidential contenders in the last general election, in Abia, a new party that has the appeal of the people suddenly can also make a dent on the mega parties.”
Ekele also assured that the ZLP would address the rural–urban migration through agriculture and skill acquisition programmes. For instance, if you stay in a rural area and you’re able to earn a living, you have no business going to the city. You can stay there and earn a living.
“In my LGA, we are looking at agriculture and building a cottage and small-scale industries to address rural–urban migration. We will address lots of issues by training the youths on Information and Communication Technology, such that they can reside Isuikwuato and work for international companies and earn dollars as payment. I can bring that to Isuikwuato.
“We are not expecting funds to be a problem. We all know the existing supreme court ruling that suggest that there will be funds going to the local governments. There is also the IGR from the localities and other creative ways of getting funds.” Meanwhile, there is a feeling in the State that the opposition parties like the PDP are gearing to take advantage of the crisis in LP and possible loopholes within ZLP.
