As the crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) intensifies, the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Ireti Kingibe, on Tuesday, threw her weight behind the 29-man caretaker committee put in place by the party’s stakeholders last week.
This was as activist Aisha Yesufu attacked LP National Chairman Julius Abure over the alleged misappropriation of campaign funds.
An enlarged stakeholders’ meeting called by the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi and the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, held in Umuahia, Abia State capital, was called to resolve the lingering leadership crisis in the party.
At the meeting, the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee was set up to steer the affairs of the party and conduct a national convention.
The National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, the National Secretary, Umar Farouk, and the National Youth Leader, Kennedy Ahanotu, were conspicuously absent from the meeting.
Kingibe, at the flag-off of a four-day free medical outreach she facilitated for her constituents in Abuja, done in collaboration with the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, said Abure and his loyalists were yet to come to terms with reality.
Represented by her Senior Legislative Aide, Dr Chris Omofoma, Kingibe told The PUNCH that every Labour Party member knew Abure’s tenure alongside his NWC had ended as far back as June 2023.
There is no crisis in the Labour Party. It is Abure’s NWC that refused to admit that its tenure has ended.
“Even INEC has clearly stated that Abure’s tenure ended in 2023 June. But Alex Otti and Peter Obi extended it by one year so the party could recover from the (2023) election losses before conducting the national convention.
“So their tenure was extended to 8 June 2024, which has lapsed. Whatever Alex Otti, Obi and other party stakeholders did is well in line with the constitution and INEC guidelines.
“It is left for Abure to come to terms with the reality that his tenure is over and it is time to do the needful. I am in sync with the Nenadi Usman-led committee and I back it 100 per cent. That is the way to go”, she said.
On Monday, at the National Executive Committee meeting of the party, Abure told journalists the allegation that he embezzled the party’s campaign donations was untrue.
“I must seize this opportunity to make some clarifications on a few issues. The party and I have been accused of being responsible for Peter Obi’s failure in the 2023 general election. They stated that the campaign, election donations and funds for the payment of agents were mismanaged by the party, hence Peter Obi failed in the election.
“The election funding was done by Obi himself. As per the donations, the party was not involved. The signatories to these accounts were Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo. They were equally responsible for the payment of polling unit agents”.
The Obi-Datti fundraising team refuted the claim that only Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Ighodalo were responsible for managing the campaign funds of the LP presidential campaign at the 2023 election.
Reacting in a viral video posted on her official YouTube account on Tuesday, Yesufu, who doubled as the chairman of the campaign fundraising team, described Abure as a chronic liar.
The activist challenged the national chairman to tell Nigerians what he did with the proceeds of the infamous ‘Labour Party N1,000 Challenge’ campaign donations he had been raising since 2022.
“That statement Abure made was a big fat lie. He thinks it was like those days when they used to do their Labour unionism when nobody had the internet or kept records; those days they got away with everything. When it comes to certain things, I am a very detailed and process-driven person.
“There were times when the fundraising team was frustrated with me because of my insistence on due process. Before Mr Obi came out with his campaign account, the Labour Party had theirs. I have with me here a ‘Labour Party N1,000 Challenge’ post that was tweeted on 24/11/22. It said ‘Take ownership of the LP campaign by donating a minimum of N1,000 to Labour Party Zenith Account 1225832294.
“When that account was opened by Abure, I was very angry. I remember some people harmlessly saying it was no big deal since it was for the same Labour Party campaign. But I insisted that it is not the same thing because we don’t have access to any money that went into the LP account and, therefore, can’t use it to facilitate the electioneering campaign.
“So for Julius Abure to come out in 2024 to blatantly lie that they were not involved in any campaign, saying it was only Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua (is unbelievable). By the way, there are three signatories, not two as he said. Up till now, the LP neither accounted for the money the public donated to them nor accounted for the money used to procure forms”.
The allegation and counter-allegation come six months after Yesufu announced that the fundraising team received donations totalling N596 million from party supporters, Obidient movements and well-meaning Nigerians across the globe.
She added that Obi also spent N744,500,000 naira on litigations following his loss in the 2023 presidential election.
Also, at the NEC meeting of the party on Monday, Abure announced the withdrawal of automatic tickets previously reserved for Obi and Otti ahead of the 2027 elections.
Reading the communiqué after the NEC meeting, Abure said the party had thrown open all its tickets, from the presidency to the houses of assembly to all qualified Nigerians.
“NEC in session also reviewed the decision of the national convention to reserve its presidential and governorship tickets for Peter Gregory Obi and Alex Otti respectively. Consequently, all tickets of the party from the Presidency to the houses of assembly are open to all qualified Nigerians”, the communiqué read.
The former Director General (DG) of the Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, said he suspected foul play and ulterior motives behind the decision.
Osuntokun, reacting to the withdrawal of automatic tickets to Obi and Otti when he was featured as a guest on Arise TV on Tuesday, said Abure’s decision to make a U-turn a few weeks after his pronouncement showed he had an ulterior motive.
The ex-campaign DG also raised concerns that the party could not afford to have a southern national chairman when the presidential standard-bearer was equally from the South.
He said the party needed to strike a balance to avoid giving Nigerians the notion that it was a regional arrangement.
“It is not for him (Abure) to decide who will be the candidate or not. This is a fundamental misunderstanding coming from someone prone to a delusion of grandeur. How can a party chairman announce such a thing? It means he has already decided who gets the presidential ticket. It defies logic.
“The Labour Party, on account of the strength and capacity displayed (at the last election), had assured many that Obi and Otti would retain their tickets.
“But some vested interests, like the ruling party, for instance, will be interested in the subversion of the party. The best way to do that is to go through the national chairman. We saw the one with the (Lamidi) Apapa’s own. They are at it again.
“The truth is there is no way you can hold a convention without the consent of INEC. If you stage a convention in which the principal stakeholders stay away and INEC is still not in a position to give the approved authority, it is clear. Look, this tendency of sit-tight syndrome is what is principally wrong with Africa”, he said.
Dismissing Abure’s claim, Osuntokun said, “Potentially, Obi is likely to be the party’s candidate in the next election. He is from the South-East. So by the logic of Nigeria’s power politics, the chairman of the party should not come from the South. That is logical.
Don’t know how this plays in his (Abure) mind. These are the kind of things that should be in his consideration”.
The Abia State LP chairman, Emmanuel Otti, said, “It is too early now to be talking about 2027. Nobody knows who will live beyond that. It is only God that can say.
“We have seen people who say they will do one thing and, at the end of the day, may not be alive for that. So, only God has the final say”.
The Special Adviser to the Abia State Governor on Political Affairs, Acho Obioma, said, “Abure is stating his own. Let all of us here calm down. I can’t join issues with anybody. My advice is that nobody should join any issues with him”.
When contacted, the Abia State Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, said he was not competent to talk on that but should be left for Abure and others who he said were free to say whatever they wanted.
He asked that the matter be left to those handling party matters, adding, “We are focused on our mandate to deliver democracy dividend to Abia people”.
Efforts to reach the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State Governor, Ukoha Njoku and the Governor’s Media Adviser, Ferdinand Ekeoma, failed as they could not be reached for their comments.
