The Labour Party in Nigeria has urged its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and other elected officials, including the governor-elect of Abia State, Alex Otti, and legislators elected on the party’s platform to distance themselves from the suspended National Chairman of the party, Bar Julius Abure. The call came amid allegations that Abure led NWC members and non-members of the party’s NEC, including Obi, were plotting to suspend members of the NWC.
The National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, signed a press statement warning that such action would amount to contempt of court, as Abure and others were restrained by court and currently facing criminal charges. The restraining order had also been communicated to INEC by their lawyer, OJ Onoja SAN.
The statement read that the suspended National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, was planning to conduct an emergency National Executive Meeting (NEC) scheduled to hold in Asaba on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The agenda of the meeting was allegedly to carry out illegal suspensions of members of the NWC of the party, who are currently facing criminal charges in court.
Arabambi said that the party had been reliably informed that Abure had gathered some Senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect of Labour Party, who had not been inaugurated and were not members of NEC, for the meeting to take an illegal decision against the party’s constitution. Such an action would be a contempt of court that even a child should know the impending consequences of a jail term.
The Labour Party called on Obi to concentrate on his case at the Election Petition Tribunal and allow the court to complete its proceedings on Julius Abure and other members of the party’s NWC fingered in forgery and perjury. Arabambi advised Obi that by the provisions of law, he is not an officer of the Labour Party, and even if he won the presidential election, that would not qualify him to become an NWC member but only a member of NEC.
The Labour Party believes that anyone involved in such a plot risks contempt of court and a jail term. The party was founded on principles, and the new national leadership would not condone any form of executive rascality, malfeasance, or a reduction of the Labour Party to a one-man, regional, or ethnic base political party as currently being promoted by the infantile Julius Abure and his co-travellers.
The Labour Party has urged Peter Obi and other elected officials to disassociate themselves from the suspended National Chairman of the party, Bar Julius Abure, and allow the court to complete its proceedings on Julius Abure and other members of the party’s NWC fingered in forgery and perjury. The party calls for the upholding of the rule of law, especially for people who got their mandates on the trust of a new Nigeria of uprightness
