The Labour Party (LP)’s caretaker committee chairperson, Nenadi Usman, has called on Julius Abure, the party’s polarizing national chairman, to fulfill his threat against Abia State Governor Alex Otti and the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Remember how Abure had promised to expose Obi and Otti, saying that they would be treated like rotten eggs once he was done?
However, Usman challenged Abure to fulfill his threat during a Monday appearance on Channels Television.
“Well, I’m giving him a challenge to reveal who we are. Don’t go talk now if you have someone to expose; instead, go expose them,” she urged.
According to her, the LP has documentation of Abure’s behavior, and police are currently looking into some of his acts.
“The people he did it to went to the police because we have a lot of information on him.
“He is being investigated by the police, and you will hear about it very soon,” she continued.
According to Usman, the LP’s current issue is an assault on internal democracy.
In general, you would concur with me that a strong opposition is essential to any democracy.
Therefore, there is an issue when the opposition wishes to join the ruling party. And we’re at that point right now,” she remarked.
She said Abure’s tenure as LP national chairman had elapsed and that the party had moved to resolve the leadership vacuum in line with the directive of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Usman said, “Principally, the Labour Party leadership at some point had issues with INEC because the tenure of Abure and his NWC had come to an end.
“Which was why when INEC invited leaders of political parties, he attended the meeting and was told to step out with his secretary.”
The LP stalwart recalled that after the INEC incident, Abure went to court and secured a ruling ordering INEC to recognise him.
“We, of course, appealed. Even at the court of appeal, judgment was still given in his favour that INEC should recognise him,” she said.
She said Abure’s name on the INEC website remains listed “by court order”, contrary to the democratic requirement for leaders to emerge through election.
“You would see his name and you would see ‘by court order. It’s supposed to be by election — people get to be leaders of the party through election, not by court order,” she said.
The Supreme Court later declared that lower courts lacked the authority to appoint Abure chairman, according to the former finance minister.
“We moved to the Supreme Court, which took a close look at the matter and declared that the two lower courts lacked jurisdiction.
“They said that he is no longer the chairman of the Labour Party and that his tenure was over,” she claimed.
She said that after reading the ruling, Justice Inyang Okoro warned political leaders not to stay in office after their term was over.
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