A Labour Party Chieftain, Callistus Okafor, has said he is supposed to be the national chairman of the party and not Julius Abure.
Mr. Callistus Okafor said that at the time Abure emerged as national chairman of LP, he was the Deputy National Chairman, while Abure was the National Secretary of the party.
He accused Abure of manipulating the process to emerge as the party’s National Chairman without following the constitution.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Thursday, Okafor stated that the current crisis of the party was a result of faulty foundation.
“The moment you get something wrong, the moment you lay a foundation and that foundation is faulty the whole house will be faulty.
“This started when in a National Executive Council meeting in Edo, an acting national secretary emerged as a substantive national chairman that is the problem.
“How can an acting national secretary, Abure, emerge? Such thing does not exist in Labour party constitution.
“Then coming to Julius Abure was an acting national secretary while I was a deputy national chairman and as a deputy national chairman the constitution of the party in the ladder of leadership says in the absence of the chairman, the deputy takes over.
“We have two deputies, North and South. If the Deputy North is not there, the Deputy South takes over, vice versa.
“Those who drafted that constitution they were so they were wise enough to know that in absence of the deputy there should be six national vice chairman each from each political zone
“So there’s no way any of the deputies any of the six deputies will be absent the same time. In that Edo, there was an illegal deputy there, but there was a substantive, well recognized by the constitution national vice chairman and acting national secretary emerged, that is the problem,” Okafor said.
He further accused Abure of leading the party with mostly appointed and not elected executives. Okafor also faulted the appointment of Nenadi Usman as Cakertaker chairman of LP. He argued that the party constitution should be followed.
Okafor continued, “In Abure-led executive, there are only three persons there that are constitutionally elected, other people are Abure’s appointees.
Just like what happened in Abia State yesterday (Wednesday). Labor party is not a town hall meeting. it’s not a village meeting where the president general will come appoint people to become this and become that. Again we are talking about political party that has a constitution.
“There was a consent judgment delivered by Kolawole 2018, that consent judgment has not been obeyed and that consent judgment has not been set aside. Until it is set aside it is no longer in existence.
“So as long as it is still there and has not been set aside, you cannot tell me your tenure has elapsed.
“How can you say that when you know that in every judgment given there are beneficiaries. At that point the consent judgment was given, I was the deputy national chairman, Abure was an acting national secretary.”