2 months ago
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The leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party has taken a new turn following reports that the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee has filed a lawsuit to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission from granting recognition to the newly installed Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee.
This was disclosed to The PUNCH by a party chieftain at the secretariat, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak on the issue.
“Abure also wants the commission to confer legitimacy on the party leadership by respecting the March 27 convention that returned him and members of the NWC to office,” the source said.
Efforts to get the reaction of the embattled national chairman to verify the report were unsuccessful.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, who just returned from a trip to China, confirmed the development.
He said, “Yes, the party is in court. It is not directly targeted at the caretaker committee because we don’t even recognise it at all.
“We are in court to get INEC to respect the party and its leadership following the outcome of our March 27 convention.”
His sentiment was shared by the National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farouk.
Farouk also emphasised the need to compel INEC to respect the legitimacy of Abure’s NWC.
“We are not in court for INEC to restrain anybody. All we are seeking is our legitimacy and for the commission to grant us recognition as stipulated by the extant law. That is what we are looking for,” he stated.
The lawsuit comes barely two weeks after the Labour Party’s presidential flag bearer in 2023, Peter Obi; Abia State Governor, Alex Otti; and some party stakeholders set up a 29-man caretaker committee.
The committee, headed by Usman, a former minister, was tasked with conducting an expanded election to birth new executives at the ward, local government, state, and national levels.
However, the decision did not sit well with the Abure-led NWC, which described the arrangement as null and illegal.
The party, through Ifoh, further warned Otti to stick to governance and stop meddling in the party’s affairs.
Four days after the Usman committee was inaugurated, the party leadership withdrew the automatic ticket given to Obi and Otti ahead of the 2027 election.
While debunking claims that the decision was a revenge mission, Abure said the move was taken to provide equal opportunity to qualified candidates ahead of the next election.
Meanwhile, all efforts to reach Usman and the caretaker committee secretary, Darlington Nwokocha, proved abortive.
As of the time of filing this report, neither had answered calls nor replied to messages seeking their reactions.
