Former Labour Party (LP) Chairman Julius Abure has accused the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and Abia State Governor, Alex Otti of destabilising the tranquility in the party.
Abure claimed that the chaos in the party began after Obi and Otti backed the establishment of a caretaker committee in Umuahia.
Abure made the allegation during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.
According to him, the decision to create the committee disrupted the party’s stability and remains the root cause of the prolonged internal conflict.
“Now let me put it very clearly: Alex Otti and Peter Obi destabilised the tranquillity of the party. You will recall that the party was running smoothly, without major disagreements in the party. It was Peter Obi and Alex Otti who went to Umuahia to set up this illegal caretaker committee that has become an albatross to the leadership of the party,” Abure said.
He maintained that the crisis cannot simply be ignored because those he considers responsible continue to feature prominently whenever the party’s leadership dispute is discussed.
“Because the crisis is still lingering, we cannot stop talking about it. Each time you talk about the crisis in the Labour Party, the names that feature prominently are Peter Obi and Alex Otti, and they are the cause of the crisis in the party. Not until the crisis in the party is finally resolved and dusted, we cannot stop talking about it,” he said.
Abure also rejected suggestions that he is an outsider within the Labour Party, instead describing Senator Nenadi Usman as the “interloper.”
“I need to make it very clear that I am not an interloper in the Labour Party. If there is any interloper in the Labour Party, I think it is Senator Nenadi Usman that is the interloper.”
Abure argued that the legal battle over the party’s leadership is yet to reach a final conclusion. He recalled that after the party’s 2024 convention in Nnewi, the Federal High Court upheld the validity of the convention and recognised the leadership under him, a decision he said was affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
According to him, the matter only resurfaced when Nenadi Usman initiated fresh legal proceedings earlier this year, resulting in another Federal High Court judgment that was also upheld on appeal.
He disclosed that his group has appealed the latest judgment and remains confident that the Supreme Court will ultimately determine the issue.
“As it stands today, we have appealed that judgment, and the Electoral Act is clear that for you to bring any matter that has to do with pre-election issues, you must have participated in all the processes leading to the election, including the primaries and nomination of candidates,” he said.
