by Jerrywright Ukwu
Nenadi Usman, caretaker committee chairperson of the Labour Party (LP), has dared Julius Abure over his threat to expose Peter Obi, Alex Otti and other high-ranking members of her faction.
She spoke on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels Television, on Friday.
BACKGROUND
On Monday, Abure, factional national chairman of the LP, challenged Obi and Otti to name party members who received funds for the 2023 election.
“I am waiting for them — from top to bottom — to make any other move and I will open my mouth,” he said.
“And when I open my mouth, wherever they go to, they will be like smelly eggs, rotten eggs that nobody will ever buy.”
‘I CHALLENGE YOU’
Usman, a former finance minister, said Abure should make good his threat without further ado.
“Well, I am challenging him to expose us. If you have anybody to expose, you don’t go and talk now, you go and expose them,” she said.
She said the LP has records of Abure’s conduct and that some of his actions are already the subject of police investigations.
“We have a lot of things about him and that is why the people whom he did it to went to the police,” she added.
“The police are investigating him and very soon you will hear about it.”
Usman described the current crisis in the LP as an attack on internal democracy.
“Generally, you would agree with me that every democracy needs to have a vibrant opposition,” she said.
“So when the opposition wants to become part of the ruling party, then there’s a problem. And that is where we are today.”
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).
“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,” she said.
“Which was why when INEC invited leaders of political parties, he attended the meeting and was told to step out with his secretary.”
Usman 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.
‘ABURE CAN CONTEST AGAIN’
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.
Usman said the supreme court later ruled that the lower courts lacked jurisdiction to declare Abure chairman.
“We went to the supreme court and the supreme court looked at the issue critically and said the two lower courts didn’t have any jurisdiction,” she said.
“They said his tenure was over, he is not the chairman, he’s no longer the chairman of the Labour Party.”
According to her, Justice Inyang Okoro, who read the judgment, cautioned political leaders against holding onto power after their tenure.
“Justice Okoro even went on to advise that ‘please, leaders, when your tenure comes to an end in an office, please kindly leave honourably’,” she added.
She said INEC’s directive was clear — the party needed to conduct fresh congresses from the ward to the national level.
“If INEC says you don’t have leaders, your leadership, their tenure is over, then go and start having congresses,” she said.
“From the ward to the state, to local government, you do your zonal thing, come and have a national convention where you elect new leaders.”
She said the national executive committee (NEC) of the party then decided to put together a caretaker committee to oversee the process of electing new leaders.
“What the party did was to look at the major stakeholders and members of the NEC,” she said.
“They said what we should do is get together a committee that would come conduct all these congresses so that at the end of the day, we’ll have properly elected leaders.”
She said Abure could still contest in a fresh election if he wants to lead the party again, accusing him of trying to cling to power through the courts.
“Even Julius Abure, if he still wants to remain chairman, he could go through the election,” she said.
“But he doesn’t want to go through election — his NWC, they don’t want to go through election.
“They just want to be using the courts to remain as leaders. I think that’s not good for opposition.”
BACKGROUND
The LP has been embroiled in a leadership crisis, with Abure and his allies on one hand, and the caretaker committee led by Usman on the other.
The Usman committee is backed by Obi, Otti, and Ireti Kingibe, senator representing the federal capital territory (FCT).
In April, the supreme court ruled that the court of appeal lacked the jurisdiction to pronounce Abure chairman of the LP.
Since the verdict, there have been various interpretations of the apex court’s pronouncement, with all factions claiming victory.
On May 7, the Abure-led faction suspended Otti and Kingibe indefinitely over alleged anti-party activities.
On May 9, the Usman-led faction suspended Abure and accused him of illegally parading himself as national chairman of the party despite being removed by the court.