Not being satisfied with the Imo State Labour Party Guber Primary Election, conducted on 15th April, Ike C. Ibe, one of the aspirants, have joined the growing list of aspirants not happy with their loss and wants the Party Appeal Committee to, “to declare me the winner of the primary and consequently submit my name, Ike C Ibe, to INEC as the LP candidate for the November, 2023, governorship election as nominated and ratified in a process by the true party executive, and congress and as attested to by the attached official party documents.”
The petition reads in part;
The Imo State Labour Party governorship primary election was held on Saturday, April 15, 2023. The primary was designed to produce an acceptable and credible candidate for the November, 2023, governorship election in Imo State, through a credible and transparent process.
Prior to the primary election, a lot of skirmishes had been initiated by interest groups within and outside the party in order to destabilize the process, to hand in the party over to external interest groups and to outrightly scuttle the primary election process and its desired credible and acceptable outcome.
In the foregoing there were fifteen (15) governorship aspirants in Imo State Labour Party, out of which few aspirants committed to credible, transparent process. 
Unfortunately the management of the process, especially by the Southeast Chairman of the party, Chief Innocent Okeke, generated mistrust within the process, such that the aspirants agitated for transparency and credibility in concrete terms.
In a important meeting held with Mr Peter Obi in Abuja, the aspirants and Imo stakeholders demanded a credible primaries committee headed by Mr Peter Obi himself. A Steering Committee was created to satisfy this demand. To the Steering Committee, each aspirant was to nominate a representative, which was fulfilled.
In the first sitting of the committee, the Southeast Chairman of Labour Party shockingly assumed chairmanship, surprisingly with the National Treasurer, Mrs Oluchi Opara, as member. The sitting attracted untold protests from aspirants’ representatives due to its composition and skewed style. Instead of styling the committee in which members are partakers of the deliberation and decision process, it became a breifing session, after decisions have been already made. It was obnoxious.
In the process, after protests, further people were added: Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie as the Chairman and Mrs Nneka Onwudiwe as the Secretary.
In particular the Chairman of the committee, Prof Awuzie, styled himself as the chairman of Labour Party, Imo State chapter, without necessarily acknowledging the members of the committee as his state exco members, even after assuring them that their names had been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), hence the unilateral decisions.
After the third sitting of the committee, in which the southeast chairman of the party handed over the chairmanship of the committee to Prof Awuzie, the real problems began.
Whereas that between the month of January to March, 2023, together with my campaign team, we criss-crossed throughout the state to talk to the leadership of the party and prospective delegates to explain what the issues are and to canvas their votes for the primary election.
Whereas many prospective party delegates preferred us for the governorship ticket of the party on the basis of our track records, credibility, attitude, and type of person.
Whereas party men and women have seen us work and develop the party to such an enviable height, since August 2022 having been member of the presidential campaign council and the Chairman of the strategy and planning committee,
Whereas I have provided leadership and stability as a member of the party Taskforce in Imo,
Whereas I surely know that I have been cheated out due to the compromised process by which LP men and women were not used as delegates,
Whereas I am aware that in a separate process held on Thursday, April 13, 2023, the State Executive Committee of the Labour Party in Imo State, considering mainly credibility factors, had relied on Article 28.3 of the party’s constitution to nominate me Ike C Ibe as the Labour Party’s candidate for the November, 2023, governorship election.
The resolution on Ike C Ibe’s nomination was subsequently ratified by Imo State Congress of the Labour Party, on Friday, April 14, 2023. A letter, dated Saturday, April 15, 2023, has since been forwarded to the national working committee, via the national Chairman of our great party, requesting to submit the name of Ike C Ibe to INEC as the Imo State governorship candidate for the November, 2023, election.
We nevertheless accepted this nomination and its subsequent ratification and the request made on the national leadership of Labour Party in any case.
Whereas I firmly know that if LP men and women were used as delegates in the April 15th primary, they would obviously vote for me, who has consistently worked hard for the party, I hereby appeal the outcome of the party primary and request the party to declare Ike C Ibe winner and submit the name of Ike C Ibe to INEC.
