Obi, Otti have no power to convene LP stakeholders’ meeting, says factional chair

Callistus Okafor, national factional chair of the Labour Party (LP), says Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra, and Alex Otti, governor of Abia, have no authority to convene a stakeholders’ meeting on behalf of the party.

Otti had earlier announced a stakeholder meeting of the party’s national executive council (NEC), scheduled for September 4 at the government house in Umuahia, the state capital.

The announcement came after Julius Abure, LP national chairman, advised Otti to stick to governance and stop meddling in the party’s administration.

Obi, who was the party’s presidential candidate in 2023, and Datti Baba-Ahmed, his running mate, are expected to attend the meeting.

On Tuesday, Abure presided over a national working committee (NWC) meeting and a communique was issued after.

In the communique, Abure said Otti called for an emergency NEC meeting to dissolve party executives at state, local, and ward levels, citing expired tenures as the reason.

However, Okafor faulted Abure for holding the NWC meeting, describing it as “illegal” since his tenure expired on June 9, 2024.

In 2018, Gabriel Kolawole, an Abuja federal high court judge, delivered a consent judgment that compelled all parties to convene an “inclusive” national convention.

The verdict followed a leadership tussle between the late Abdulkadir Salam, a former chairman of LP, and a group led by Salisu Mohammed, who had declared himself the national caretaker chair of the party.

Okafor, who has argued that he was a “beneficiary” of the judgment, was deputy chair (south) to Salam at the time.

Okafor said any meeting convened outside the ”consent judgement” is ”null and void.”

He said whatever Abure does at this point is just another “attempt to manipulate his dwindling followership” into a “false belief” that there is hope.

“The governor of Abia State Dr. Alex Otti and the Presidential Candidate of the party in the 2023 General Election Mr. Peter Obi have no constitutional power to call for a Stakeholder’s meeting without the approval of the Party’s executive which is presided over by me,” Okafor said.

“This is a clear indication that both Dr. Alex Otti and Mr. Peter Obi want to hijack the machinery of the party for their personal gains especially Mr. Peter Obi who desperately wants to use the Party for merger. We will resist any person or group who wants to use the party for his or her selfish gain.

“It is a well-known fact that the illegal tenure of Julius Abure ended on the 27th June, 2024.

“It is criminal deception for Abure to fraudulently parade himself as the chairman of Labour Party when he knows that he no longer enjoys privileges under the law.”

Okafor said the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) rejection of the “2014 Nnewi convention shows it didn’t meet party constitutional requirements and relevant legislation governing political parties in Nigeria”.

The factional chair said this decision proves the “convention’s illegitimacy and its outcomes invalid.”

He added that they’ll reconcile aggrieved members, conduct inclusive congresses, and hold a national convention to achieve a united LP.