As there are signs that the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his supporters, known as Obidients, have abandoned the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure, to his fate, the crisis engulfing the Labour Party, LP, took a dangerous turn last week when members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, began picketing the national secretariat and some of its state offices.
The internal crisis that has been trembling the party structure since the results of the general elections in 2023 is not unrelated to this, as Abure has been accused of financial malfeasance and other unsettling matters.
In February 2024, Peter Obi demanded a comprehensive and forensic examination of an embezzlement charge brought against the party’s chairman, Abure. This was in response to previous claims made by Oluchi Oparah, the national treasurer of the party, that Abure had embezzled N3.5 billion.
In addition, Oparah said that in the run-up to the September 2024 governorship elections, the National Working Committee, directed by Abure, was closely collaborating with both the Edo State Government and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
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Similarly, the party voiced worries over ongoing scandals and fraud charges in a letter signed by Comrades Titus Amba and Chris Uyot, the chairman and secretary of the NLC Political Commission.
Abure is currently going through a tough period. Recently, certain party stakeholders, such as the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, accused Abure of leading the LP as a “sole administrator.”
Recalls that Dr. Theophilus Ndubuaku, the Deputy President of the NLC Political Commission, stated that the choice to picket the party’s headquarters was made to voice the workers’ complaints against Abure’s leadership style. This was made during the workers’ recent occupation of the Labour Party headquarters in Abuja.
He declared, “Now that it’s in the hands of this usurper, he wants to buy forms for N30 million, N40 million, and so on, not including the party founders. Regarding the expense of gubernatorial interest and nomination forms, Comrade Bello Ismail, the acting general secretary of the NLC, stated, “Enough is enough. Abure must go.”
Likewise, the union criticized Abure for not adhering to Labour Party doctrine in a letter signed by Comrades Titus Amba and Chris Uyot, the chairman and secretary of the NLC Political Commission, respectively.
The National Working Committee, NWC, led by embattled LP Chairman Abure, was recently accused of organizing plans to hold the party’s national convention on March 27 in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State.
However, important parties like the NLC and the House of Representatives Caucus opposed the move, which is what caused last week’s picketing of the party headquarters.
Recall that the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission, the NLC’s political wing, denounced the planned convention and demanded Abure resign immediately in an open letter dated March 15. The commission called the plan illegal and stated that it would not tolerate any illegality in the party’s operations.
Dr. Yunusa Salisu Tanko, Chief Spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council for the 2023 election, addressed the controversy surrounding the convention on Saturday stressing that Abure did not adequately represent the stakeholders of
“We don’t want a closed convention like the Chairman is trying to have. Because it is likely going to be a closed convention instead of an open convention and that is not good for us. “Many people did not even know that there was going to be a convention. I was not aware of the convention too. I saw it in the newspaper just like any other person.
“This is what NLC is also saying. Nobody is against any particular person but for us to have a convention that all of us will be proud of. Peter Obi has also said that the convention should be open for everybody.”
Tanko said, “It is not true,” in response to a question about the veracity of a widely circulated report claiming that Peter Obi had decided to leave the Labour Party before the 2027 presidential elections. In my opinion, there is nothing comparable to that.