The Labour Party led by Julius Abure has said Peter Obi, Governor Alex Otti and Datti Baba-Ahmed were responsible for the crisis faced by the party.
The Deputy National Chairman of Labour Party under Abure, Ayo Olorunfemi, said it was regrettable that Obi, Otti, Datti and Nenadi Usman, whom they accommodated have turned to destabilize the party.
Olorunfemi said the stakeholders meeting held in Abia State that appointed Nenadi as National Caretaker chairman of LP cannot stand because it was illegal. He added that Nenadi is not a registered member of the party in her ward.
In an interview with Arise TV on Thursday, Olorunfemi said, “What you saw in that video is an operation of people, who love playing to the gallery.
“These are people we accommodated. They were out there in the sun, in the rain. We accommodated them just a few years ago. How many years ago? Two years ago? Some of them are not even yet registered members.
“Like Nenadi we are talking about, she’s not a registered member of the party in his ward, in her ward. Yeah, Nenadi Usman. The National Secretary of this party is from Kaduna State and we have it on good authority. We had to check; requested for the register of a Labour Party in her ward, and her name is not there. And she has not been contributing to the ward, neither has she been contributing to the state.”
Reacting to the question that the Abia Stakeholders meeting had all the leaders of the LP including Obi, and Datti, LP senators and House of Representatives members, he said no leader of the party was in the meeting.
He argued that it was an overassumption to say Labour Party would not have been anything without Peter Obi. He stated that Nigerians are interested in who will deliver them and not hypocritics like Obi, Otti and Datti.
“Those who are calling themselves leaders, you earn leadership. In this constitution, there’s no provision for anybody called leader. What we give you is an opportunity, a rare opportunity, which you earn through your activities within the party.
“That is your assumption. But that is an overrated thing. Let me tell you, there are millions of people in Nigeria, millions of Peter Obi, millions of Dati, millions of anybody. Nobody should overrate himself or herself. Nigeria is looking for people who will deliver them, not hypocrites and not people that play to the gallery,” Olorunfemi stated.
The Deputy National Chairman of LP under Abure explained that there was no leadership vacuum in the party.
He maintained that the Governor of Abia State lacked the power to convene any meeting for the party.
He further accused Obi, Datti, Otti and other members of the party in the Abia stakeholders meeting of fueling the party’s crisis.
He continued, “Well, recall, we have NEC made up of chairman and secretary and 16 or 17 members in each state of the federation. Labour Party is not empty and there’s no vacuum. And meanwhile, let me also tell you that any organization that want to continue to exist, must exist via its own law and must be ready to obey its rules.
“Alex Oti is not empowered by this constitution to call any meeting and there’s nothing like stakeholder meeting in the constitution of the party.
“From what you have seen now, from what you have seen, you have seen those who are fueling the crisis that you have been seeing all this year. The people who summoned this meeting were the people that are fueling the crisis in the Labour Party. That is just the truth and they just manifested themselves.
“And we are going to deal with this via our rule. The constitution is supreme, is the grand norm of the party. You can’t, no matter who you are, you are not greater than this constitution.”
He dismissed allegations that Labour Party under Abure failed to allow elected officials to run the state and ward executives.
“What is the proof? Have they presented any proof? I just mentioned to you, okay, let me give you Ondo State. In all the wards in Ondo State, we have our executive in place. At the state level, we have our executive in place. They were elected. They have the ward, local government and state congresses, of course, they have different tenors,” Olorunfemi said.