Labour Party, LP, candidate in the 2024 Edo State governorship election, Olumide Akpata, has dismissed reports suggesting he plans to defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The speculation, which circulated across social media platforms over the weekend, alleged that Akpata had abandoned the Labour Party following his loss in the September 2024 governorship poll to APC candidate, Governor Monday Okpebholo.
Reacting in a post on X, Akpata described the reports as “malicious, mischievous and utterly false,” insisting that he had no plans to join the ruling APC.
“In the past 24 hours, a malicious, mischievous and utterly false rumour has been concocted in the dark alleys of social media, and unfortunately amplified by mischief-makers, alleging that I have abandoned the @NgLabour Party, the very platform on which I contested the 2024 Edo State gubernatorial election, to join the All Progressives Congress, APC,” Akpata wrote.
“This is not only false but laughable. I state without equivocation that I have neither contemplated, discussed, nor effected a defection to the APC and, for the avoidance of doubt, I have no intention of ever joining the APC,” he added.
Akpata, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, contested on the LP platform in the September election but was defeated by Okpebholo of the APC.
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