From Jude Idu, Abuja
Former finance minister, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, yesterday, emerged as the chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Labour Party (LP) at a stakeholders’ meeting in Umuahia, Abia State.
Immediate-past Senate minority deputy leader, Senator Darlington Nwokocha from Abia Central was appointed as the Secretary of the 29-member committee, expected to complete its assignment in 90 days.
The Caretaker Committee is to rescue the party from its current leadership crisis, and organize a convention where a new leadership of the party would emerge from the Ward to the national stage.
The presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi; his running mate, Datti Ahmed; Senator Victor Umeh; the party’s governorship candidate in Lagos State, Rhodes-Vivour, were among the party bigwigs present at the massively-attended meeting hosted by Governor Alex Otti.
However, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the LP has condemned the stakeholder’s meeting convened by Abia State Governor, Alex Otti.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, in a statement, said there was no vacuum in the party leadership, which may have warranted such a gathering to fill the gap, describing it as a mere charade.
The statement further read: “As clearly stated in our previous statement, the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, and all others who have converged in Umuahia have no power within the Party Constitution, the
Electoral Act and even within the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to convene any meeting of the party.
“Moreover, an expanded stakeholders’ meeting is not an organ known to the Constitution of the party.”
