The Senator representing Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, has declared that the Labour Party (LP) currently has no leadership.
In an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Umeh addressed the ongoing issues within the party.
The lawmaker, a chieftain of the LP, highlighted that the LP’s leadership crisis persists following the controversial national convention held by the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) in Nnewi, Anambra State.
Recent efforts to resolve the crisis have seen LP’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and key figures such as Governor Alex Otti of Abia State taking decisive action.
They convened an enlarged National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Umuahia, resulting in the nomination of former Finance Minister Senator Nenadi Usman to head a new interim NWC. This committee is tasked with organizing congresses and a national convention within 90 days to elect permanent party officials.
However, the appointment of Usman has faced resistance from Callistus Uju Okafor, a factional acting Chairman of the party, who has dismissed the NEC meeting as illegal and the appointment as null and void. Okafor has urged the public to disregard the meeting and its outcomes.
Similarly, Abure’s faction has also rejected the NEC’s decisions, deeming them unconstitutional.
Senator Umeh asserted that without a legitimate executive committee, the discussions about constitutional adherence are moot.
He emphasized that the absence of a properly constituted leadership has created a vacuum in the party, which he believes the members must address.
“People who are asking this question do not understand that when you don’t have a legitimate executive committee in charge of their party, the issue of whether the Constitution is followed or not will become unnecessary. We don’t have a legitimate executive committee now.
“Those who are claiming to have the powers to do so have not told Nigerians that their tenure in office has since expired as a result of exhaustion of time and because they didn’t do what they were supposed to do to bring in a succeeding leadership in the party, the party is right now without leadership.
“There must be a chairman of the party legitimately before you begin to complain about infractions on the constitution. Those who are raising these questions do not understand that they are no longer in place and if you are not in place, nature abhors a vacuum,” he said.
Umeh defended the Abia meeting, stating that it was necessary for the party to establish new leadership in the absence of an existing one.