LP loses Azemhe due to alleged mistreatment by local government chairman

One of the candidates vying for the Labour Party’s (LP) ticket in the Edo State governorship race on September 21, 2024, Dr. Azemhe Azena, has resigned from the party.

Read Also: Gov Oborevwori’s petitions from LP and SDP are rejected by the Supreme Court

A resignation letter dated January 27, 2024 was sent to the party’s Ward 10 chairman in Okpekpe, Etsako-East Local Government, according to the Obasanjo News24.

Among the eighteen candidates for governorship, Azena objected to the N30 million that was charged on Thursday to acquire nomination and Expression of Interest forms.

However, on Wednesday, while speaking with reporters at the Benin Airport after returning from a foreign trip, the televangelist—who serves as the Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries’ Southern Region 2 in Benin City—boasted that N30 million would not stop him from running in the party’s governorship primary election, which is set for February 22, 2024.

Azena blamed Michael Onaivi, the party’s chairman for the Akoko-Edo local government, and his followers for mistreating him and their supporters during Onaivi’s tour of the local government, according to his resignation letter.

He claimed that Onaivi blocked him from going into the local administration with his team.

He stated, “I have worked very hard for this party, and my decision to resign is based on the mistreatment I received when I went on a political tour of all the local government areas in Edo North, where I come from, between December 27 and December 30, 2023.

“I was shocked to learn that the Akoko-Edo Labour Party leadership, under the direction of Mr. Michael Onaivi, the chairman of the local government area, opposed and stopped my team and I from going into the local government for the aforementioned visit.”

The former candidate for governorship claimed to have reported the event to the party’s leader of the Edo North Senatorial District, Chris Ighodalo. He added that the senatorial leader had begged the chairman multiple times to let his team visit the local government, but to no avail.

“I personally met with the senatorial leader to discuss the matter, and I also filed a protest letter to the senatorial leadership copying the state leadership. However, nothing has been spoken or done about it as of yet.

In a party that advocates for justice and equality, he continued, “that one man can prevent an aspirant and his team from entering any part of a senatorial zone to which the aspirant himself hails from speaks of lawlessness and wanton impunity.”

He believed that the reported mistreatment was a slight on the sensibilities of the party’s members in Edo-North, Etsako, and Edo State as a whole.

On the other hand, he expressed his gratitude to the state party leadership for giving him the chance to be an active member in the past.