From Jude Idu, Abuja
As the Labour Party leadership crisis rages on, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been accused of refusing to implement the Abuja High Court judgment that stopped Julius Abure from further acting as the national chairman of the party.
In this interview, Tony Akeni Le Moin, chairman LP-NTC Sub-committee on Media and Publicity, said that what INEC has done is wrongly stealing the time, pace and progress of NTC, which has emboldened Abure to begin illegal congress arrangements in some states of the federation.
He said that the umpire equally lacked the same courage to openly and unequivocally declare that the National Transition Committee set up by the Political Commission of the NLC is, as an offshoot of the Justice Kolawole consent judgment of March 20, 2018, the lawful authority of the Labour Party pending when the NTC midwifes transparent, expansive and all-inclusive congresses and national convention according to the terms of the consent judgment, which he said INEC is an institutional witness.
Has the LP-NTC rolled out its
programme for the convention?
Not yet. That programme is in the works by one of the 13 constituted committees of the NTC. It is appropriately called the Convention Committee.
Why is that process taking too long, and why has there been slow progress in the NTC activities since the auguration?
As our forebears say, if a windstorm falls many trees to barricade your path, you start by cutting and pulling away the tree at the top first, one at a time, till you get to the last one. So, our timetable for congresses and the convention is coming. However, with the many calculated obstacles Abure mounted and clogged on the path of the Labour Party’s progress, of course, in the service of his paymasters and powers that be, to retrieve the party from his blighting tyranny and destruction, NTC must work methodically. We have to work diligently, follow processes dictated by law and exhaust engagements with statutory stakeholders, especially the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is to peacefully extricate the party from Abure’s abyss and bobby traps set up by his sponsors of opposition political parties whom he is in partnership with to destroy the Labour Party. And we are making huge, but untrumpeted progress every day without making noise about it. NTC is taking out the obstacles constituted by Abure one by one.
What are these obstacles?
What would have been our first obstacle, INEC became a positive partner in the beginning. But ironically, the same INEC, if truth must be told, is now also our last huddle. Let me explain. You will recall that INEC, led by its Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had shown courage and good conscience at different stages of the party’s leadership crises in the past. In obedience to the law and an extant court judgment, INEC did not only boycott Abure’s Nnewi kangaroo convention of his like-minded con men. Prof Mahmood Yakubu’s board and some of his sincere commissioners have openly and consistently informed Abure and his expired council in clear unmistakable terms that his time in office as national chairman of the Labour Party has ended. It was made clear to both Abure and NTC that Abure’s last recognized day as chairman of the party was June 2024 when the extra one-year tenure Abure artfully arm-twisted from stakeholders whom he cornered together in Asaba in 2023 has expired. INEC also informed Abure’s defunct exco in vivid terms, in written documents, which are now in the public domain, that the commission does not recognize the Nnewi convention based on which Abure ascribes to himself the NWC leadership of the Labour Party. What INEC is yet to do, however, which is stealing time, pace and progress from NTC, and which has emboldened Abure to begin illegal congress arrangements in some states of the country, is to equally summon the same courage to openly and unequivocally declare that the National Transition Committee set up by the Political Commission of the NLC is, as on offshoot of the Justice Kolawole consent judgment of March 20, 2018, the lawful authority of the Labour Party pending when the NTC midwifes transparent, expansive and all-inclusive congresses and national convention, according to the terms of the consent judgment. A judgment to which INEC is an institutional witness. Since March 20, 2018, which is more than six whole years to the present, the Labour Party NWC which Abure snatched from his predecessor in office, Comrade (Mrs) Maria Labeke, Julius Abure has defied and broken the terms of the six-year old judgment, the terms of several settlement agreements which INEC itself brokered and reminders for compliance done by INEC to Abure. The law, in principle, spirit and construct, does not envisage, encourage or make provision for a lawbreaker to benefit from his violation of the law. That is what Abure has done and enjoyed for so long, too long. That is, benefitting from violating the Labour Party’s consent judgment and INEC’s lenient administrations for more than six years to date. That is what the Labour Party National Transition Committee has stepped up to stop to correct and erect a new and respectable law-abiding Labour Party. Thus, for NTC today, the biggest stone to roll away from our party’s path of progress is a succinct, unambiguous declaration by INEC that Abure, having defied pertinent court judgments, the settlement agreements, INEC’s multiple statutory reminders and all intents of peace for justice and progress, has no more life or role to play in Labour Party’s leadership. The hand that should crank that lever and do so without further delay is INEC.
We are thus waiting for Prof Mahmood Yakubu to exhale, to breathe the word. To in the interest of law, justice and nation-building declare that there is no vacuum in the leadership of the Labour Party and that the NTC is the legal national entity and authority of the Labour Party, de facto and de jure.
The NTC was given three months to complete its assignment, will they be able to meet the deadline?
Yes, we can and are determined to do so. There is, however, a caveat to this. The public should have a realistic sense and understanding of the dateline, and the enormity of the tasks the three-month order entails. So, let’s be clear while we are on the subject. You don’t count a child’s age from the date he is conceived, but from the date he is born. You also cannot build a new house on top of a fallen house, its debris and faulty foundation. You have to break down the old house to the floor, excavate its compromised foundation and get rid of the debris before you begin to build the new one. So also it is with the NTC’s three-month mission of nationwide congresses and national conventions. It is unrealistic to start counting NTC’s three months from the period Abure is still occupying our secretariat, wreaking hurricane havoc and maximizing confusion throughout the country against the sane operations of day-to-day party administration. As you know, for example, as we speak, Abure is attempting to rip off another pandemic scam which he calls Labour Party congresses in states like Anambra, Imo, Edo, Ogun, Sokoto, Kaduna, Gombe etc. The same congresses which he refused to conduct earlier within his tenure’s time frame. Instead of doing so then when he was within his stolen tenure which we allowed for the sake of the 2013 general elections, he raced ahead of himself to first configure a sham convention in Nnewi on March 27 this year to return himself to office through the backdoor for another four years disaster. Realistically speaking, therefore, NTC’s stewardship span is expected to start counting from the final we see Abure’s back and have the undistracted drawing board and enabling tranquillity to concentrate with a laser focus on our promised three-month congresses and national convention assignment.
When do you think or estimate that day would be?
A lot of that depends on how soon INEC will find its balls and rise to the occasion to defend internal democracy within the Labour Party, which is part of INEC’s seven major constitutional functions in their oversight of political parties. A lot depends on when INEC will courageously and dutifully declare Abure extinct and NTC the distinct incumbent drivers of Labour Party affairs nationwide.
Is NTC considering legal options? In other words, why the involvement of Femi Falana Chambers?
The legal option is always on the table. It is always the only option left for civilised men and societies. And when we do as NTC, if the failure of INEC to do the right thing, to give voice and soul to the truth and allow Abure’s underworld intransigence to drive the Labour Party back to the wall, it will be earthshaking. It will not be only Nigeria’s courts if we are pushed to take that road. As I speak to you NTC’s suits in multi-fronts to ECOWAS Court, the African Union Commission on Human Rights, petitions to the diplomatic community for visa ban against Abure, members of his Nnewi cult of con-men called convention and high-placed individuals we have identified in INEC as those who are aiding and abetting Abure, are already being fine-tuned
Do you think Labour has chances of repeating its 2023 feat with this unending leadership tussle?
If you look around, you can see that no political party in Nigeria is resting without one issue or the other. But in any case there is always some issues that need to be trashed out or such would may ruin the party itself. Like I said what we are doing is to save our party from such occurrences and we put the right people in place, those who meant well for the party, we would achieve better than what we did in 2023.
Let me also reiterate that part of Labour Party’s problems in 2023, was because of wrong people in the management of our party. We have seen their weak points and how it affected the party’s chances and these are what we are being careful about. I am saying that soon things will normalize with timely response of INEC, Labour party shall overcome.