The crisis rocking the Labour Party in Edo State deepened on Sunday with the emergence of a United Kingdom-based legal practitioner, Hilton Idahosa, as the party’s third factional governorship candidate.

Ahead of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, the Labour Party had on Friday conducted its primary election.

The LP, under the leadership of Julius Abure as National Chairman, produced a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata, as the winner of the LP governorship ticket.

However, the leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party at the national level reared its head again, as the factional National Chairman of the party, Lamidi Apapa, announced the conduct of a parallel governorship primary and named Anderson Asemote as the Edo LP governorship candidate and Monday Mawah as his running mate.

A letter dated February 22, 2024 and purportedly signed by Apapa informed the Independent National Electoral Commission of the emergence of Asemota as the Edo LP governorship candidate.

However, in a fresh twist on Sunday, Idahosa announced himself as the LP governorship candidate produced by the Apapa faction.

He said, “The primary election which was earlier slated for Thursday, February 21, 2024, was shifted to Saturday, February 24, to allow for exigencies. There was no primary election conducted on Thursday, February 22, as purported in the said letter from Apapa to INEC.

“The election in which I emerged as a candidate was conducted by the Labour Party state officials at the factional secretariat of the party on First East Circular Road, Benin City.

“The said letter was the handiwork of mischief makers who were bent on causing disaffection within the ranks of the party. I have the backing of the state leaders and the party members, as well as that of Apapa and his team.

“The true position will be made known in the coming days as my team is in dialogue with both the Apapa team and leaders of the party in the state.”

But when contacted, Apapa insisted that the letter conveying Asemota’s name to INEC was authentic.

“Yes, it is true. The letter is from us,” he said.

Meanwhile, Labour Party’s National Legal Officer, Kehinde Edun, has dismissed other candidates’ claims to the Guber ticket of the party as tenuous and illegal.

He said Olumide Akpata remained the validly nominated Guber candidate of the party.

Edun described as laughable the egregious attempt by the Apapa faction to effectuate submission of its purported Guber candidate to the INEC through the medium of a letter.

According to him: ”That was not the process. The process recognised by INEC is through upload of Guber candidate to INEC portal, using a code given to the INEC-recognised national chairman, John Abure. It is only Abure that can upload the name.”

He said that besides, the schedule for the the upload of candidates was from March 4- 24, 2024.

He added that Apapa jumped the process by rushing a letter to INEC. It was all part of his plan to deceive his followers and make money from the process.

Edun spoke on Monday during an interview on Arise TV’s “The Morning Show.”