Labour Party Meeting Held In Abia Is Illegal – Abure Declares

The embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has dismissed the recent gathering organized by Abia Governor Alex Otti in Umuahia, labeling it as unconstitutional.

Abure made this assertion through a statement released in Abuja on Thursday by Obiora Ifoh.

Abure contended that Otti and the individuals who assembled in Umuahia lack the authority, as stipulated by the party’s constitution, the Electoral Act, or the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to call for any such meeting.
He said: “Moreover, expanded stakeholders meeting is not an organ known to the constitution of the party. Article 11 of our Party Constitution 2024, 2019 and 2009 provides as follows for four levels of party organisations. They are ward, local government area, state and national.

“It also provides that: The organisational structure at the state level shall also apply to the Federal Capital Territory Abuja as if it were a state.

“Similarly, Article 12 of the same constitution equally provides that the 12 principal organs of the party are National Convention, National Executive Council, National Working Committee, Board of Trustees and State Congress’’, he said.

Other organs, he said, include State Executive Council, State Working Committee, Local Government Congress, Local Government Area Council, Local Government Area Working Committee, Ward Congress and Ward Executive Council.

“Therefore the combined reading of the two provisions shows clearly that the so-called meeting in Umuahia is a charade, a waste of time and resources of the Abia People.

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“The premise on which Governor Alex Otti called the meeting is not only faulty but mischievous.

“Government business is not transacted verbally but through official communication and correspondences which are done in writing.

“As we speak, there is no communication whatsoever from INEC to the Party as regards any objection to the conduct of the National Convention’’, he said.

The Labour Party chieftain urged Governor Otti to present the official correspondence from INEC regarding the issue, emphasizing that there was no absence of leadership within the party.

The national chairman asserted that the caretaker committee established by Otti was not recognized by the party’s constitution.

“We are shocked to note that the so-called chairman of the caretaker committee is not a registered member of the party,” Abure said.

It is worth noting that the meeting convened by Otti produced Senator Nenadi Usman as the chairman of the party’s caretaker committee.

The meeting assigned the committee the responsibility of addressing the party’s ongoing leadership crisis.

The committee is required to fulfill its mandate within 90 days, which entails organizing a convention to elect new leaders at both the ward and national levels.