Suspended LP Treasurer Sues Chairman, Seeks EFCC Probe

Suspended treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Party (LP), Mrs Oluchi Oparah has dragged their chairman, Barr Julius Abure to court, urging the court to squash her six month suspension.
Oluchi is also asking the court to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to investigate the party’s financial records under the leadership of the current chairman.

She had last Sunday raised an alarm over financial misappropriation amounting to N3 billion out of the N3.5 billion raised for the campaigns in 2023.
Oluchi was later on Wednesday suspended by the party for six months.
This came as the former acting national chairman of the Labour Party, Maria Labaka, also accused Abure of forging her signature when she acted as national chairman when the substantive national chairman Abdulkadir Abdulsalam died in December 2020.

She also said that she never signed any cheque between February 7, 2022 and March 18, 2022, the period when the said Ñ14 million and two instances of N7 million were withdrawn from the account of the party by Abure
According to Mrs Labaka in an interview by Arise news Television, “The cheques between February 7 and March 18, I did not sign them. I only signed the cheques for the March 29 meeting in Benin for the national working committee members and state chairmen of the party.
“Abure also forged my signature for the change of signatures as national chairman”, she disclosed in the interview.

Meanwhile, in suit number FHC/ABj/CS/202/2024 dated February 15 2024 filed by her lawyer, Emeka Etiaba, SAN, titled, “ Originating summons pursuant to order 3 rule 7 of the federal high court ( civil procedure) rules, 2019 and under the inherent jurisdiction of this honourable court, she asked the court whether it is not under the EFCC rules to investigate forgery.

In the affidavit deposed by Oluchi Oparah, she said, “I wrote a letter to the first Defendant (EFCC) bringing a formal petition dated the 14th of February, 2024 against the national chairman of the Labour party Comrade Julius Abure, the 2nd Defendant in this Suit for several grievous offences bordering on forgery, embezzlement of the 3rd Defendant’s funds, and abuse of office and failure to account for 3rd Defendant’s funds at his disposal. The letter is annexed as Exhibit A.