Labour Party cuts its governorship nomination fee to N15m from N25m after outrage from members

NIGERIA'S  Labour Party has reacted to the fierce criticism over the exorbitant cost of its governorship nomination forms and slashed them to N15m ($32,500) from the original price of N25m ($54,000) announced earlier this month.

Later this year, gubernatorial elections will be held in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states and the political parties have begun gearing up for the contests. Yesterday, the Labour Party announced that the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms for governorship aspirants would cost N25m but the announcement immediately caused an outrage.

Considered the new kid on the block, the Labour Party contested the last elections selling itself as an alternative to the two establishment parties the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party. It subsequently attracted the youth vote, doing particularly well in urban centres like Lagos and Abuja.

After holding a meeting to review the matter in Abuja, Julius Abure, the Labour Party chairman revealed that a decision had been taken to review the price. He had chaired a meeting at the Denis Hotel, attended by the party's presidential candidate Peter Obi and the Labour Party senators and House of Representatives members-elect in Abuja.

Mr Abure said: “Today, we had a very robust engagement with our senators and House of Representatives members-elect. We agreed that we must always remember the magnanimity of the people who freely gave us their mandate.

“Our members in the National Assembly will make the difference in their conduct, utterance and the quality of legislation. We have also announced a slashing in the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms for the Labour Party governorship aspirants interested in contesting the off-season elections in Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo states.

“After considering the complaints and the intervention of our presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, we have reduced our nomination fees from N25m to N15m for the governorship. We have also resolved to return the N25m nomination fee paid by one of our aspirants in Imo State, Humphrey Anumudu who lost his life last week.”