LP transition panel backs caretaker committee, says Abure’s tenure was illegal

The national transition committee (NTC) of the Labour Party (LP) has thrown its weight behind the Nenadi Usman-led national caretaker committee.

Usman, a former senator representing Kaduna south, was appointed to lead a 29-member caretaker committee after Alex Otti, governor of Abia, convened a stakeholders meeting of the party.

Callistus Okafor and Julius Abure, factional chairs of LP, have since rejected the committee. They have both claimed to be the authentic leaders of the party’s national working committee (NWC).

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Salisu Mohammed, speaking on behalf of the NTC said the setting up of the Usman-led committee is in line with the LP constitution and electoral act.

“The NEC organized by the Governor of Abia State is the most welcome intervention needed to save the Labour Party at this time from the illegalities and corruptions of the Abure hostile capture,” Mohammed said.

“We believe that this intervention is in line with the expression of the democratic will of the millions of Nigerians who are members of the Labour Party and its supporters, and who do not want the party to die at the hands of political contractors who have been procured to destroy the party.

“As expected, Abure and his cohorts have gone to town to spread falsehood about the committee and the state of affairs in the Labour Party.

“It is mischievous that Abure refers to the Umuahia meeting as the gathering that removed him from office when the truth is that INEC had removed and derecognized him since June 9, 2024.

“What the Umuahia meeting did was to ‘commence treatment’ on the terminal illness imposed on LP by Abure and co. His utterances and actions since the meeting is a revelation of the dangers we lived with without knowing it.

“It is obvious that Abure and his followers are working to truncate the progress of the labour party.”

Mohammed said Abure and “his cohort to be wise and come back to the fold and show gratitude for the party that tolerated their illegal regime”.