A faction of the Labour Party (LP), under the leadership of Julius Abure, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of unfairly targeting them as a form of punishment for their support of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, during the 2023 general elections.
Abure expressed these concerns during a press conference held by the faction’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.
He further claimed that both Obi and Otti have betrayed the fundamental principles of the Labour Party, suggesting that they are now aligned with INEC, which, according to him, let down the Nigerian populace by mishandling the electoral process in 2023.
Ifoh emphasized the necessity for the Labour Party to inform Nigerians about the ongoing developments within the party, particularly the attempts by some leaders, including former presidential candidate Peter Obi and Governor Alex Otti, to seize control of the party through dubious means, allegedly using INEC as their instrument.
He recalled how the Labour Party had previously extended support to some leaders when their former political parties denied them candidacy.
“The media has been flooded with INEC’s counter affidavit, suggesting that the current executives’ tenure has lapsed, which supposedly justifies the contentious stakeholders meeting in Umuahia that produced a caretaker committee,” he noted.
Ifoh continued, “Just a few weeks back, His Excellencies, Peter Obi and Alex Otti, organized an illegal stakeholders meeting in Umuahia, where they selected a 29-member caretaker committee in a manner that lacked democratic integrity, claiming these individuals represented their faction of the party.”
He added that they subsequently sent a letter to INEC on September 6, 2024, regarding the fictitious leadership crisis within the party.
