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By Lawrence Agbo
The Labour Party’s leadership crisis grew worse on Monday when the National Working Committee, chaired by Nenadi Usman, demanded that Julius Abure, the party’s former National Chairman, be arrested and charged with a crime related to an alleged invasion of the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
During a press conference at the secretariat, the new leadership accused Abure and his supporters of destroying the building, threatening party officials, and stealing confidential documents.
According to the party, laptops and financial records were taken away, and properties and billboards with the image of Nenadi Usman, the acting national chairman, were demolished, documents were removed.
Usman said it has asked the Department of State Services, the Inspector General of Police, and other security agencies to intervene.
She said, “We demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of Julius Abure and others for criminal invasion, contempt of court, impersonation and threats to constitutional democracy in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is a constitutional democracy governed by laws, not a chaotic arena of impunity, terrorism and brigandage as imagined by Mr Julius Abure and others.
The alleged operation by Abure’s followers “lasted for over 30 minutes,” the temporary national chairman continued, adding that they took away “sensitive party documents, financial records, official registration, materials, laptops, desktops, phones and other critical assets.”
She added, “This confirms a disturbing pattern of impunity and disregard for lawful authority. To confirm that they had carried out a criminal operation at the party’s national secretariat, they made posts on the night of the operation through various social media handles, practically indicting themselves.
“Their subsequent press statements issued from an undisclosed hideout are a gross representation of facts and continued impersonation in defiance of binding judicial pronouncements and INEC’s position as a regulator of political parties in Nigeria.
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However, in a statement signed by the divisive National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, Abure’s camp denied the accusations.
“The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to an unsigned Press Conference purportedly by one Nenadi Usman and her cohorts, which talked about the invasion of the Labour Party national headquarters as well as a case of forgery and so on.
“We need to state very clearly that the tone of the press conference was not only fallacious and laughable but one that must be dismissed with a wave of the hand,” the statement read.
The faction said that at around one in the morning on February 10, some individuals climbed the secretariat’s fence, took down the party’s billboard, and then put up Usman’s.
Ifoh insisted that there was no official transfer of the secretariat and questioned how Usman was able to enter the offices.
“As far as we know, we did not hand over the secretariat to Nenadi Usman, and there was actually no need for that because there were judicial proceedings ongoing and until the final determination of the matter at the appellate courts, she cannot claim to be the rightful possessor of the office.
“We have since stayed the execution of the judgment of the lower court, and appealed the judgment because we believe that justice was denied us at the lower court.
“We are therefore calling on the members of the public to disregard the content of that press conference as it was ill-advised, done in bad faith and was also an attempt to portray the leadership of the party in a bad light,” he noted.
As both sides continue to fight for control of the party’s leadership, the recent conversation reflects the growing rift inside the Labour Party.
