A faction of the Labour Party, LP, led by Julius Abure has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of unfairly singling it out for retribution for actively supporting the party’s Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, and the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, during the 2023 general elections.
Abure made this statement at a media briefing by the factional National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, at the party’s National Secretariat on Wednesday in Abuja.
He also alleged that Obi and Otti had betrayed all that the Labour Party ever stood for, stressing that the duo now take sides with INEC which according to him disappointed Nigerians by bungling the will of the people during the 2023 elections.
According to Ifoh, the Labour Party needed to notify Nigerians about the recent developments in the party, especially, the efforts by some of the leaders of the party including the former presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi and the Abia state governor, Alex Otti amongst others to annex power of the leadership of the party through unfathomable means using INEC as their tool.
He said many Nigerians still remember how the party bent over backwards to accommodate some of the leaders when their former political parties denied them tickets.
“The media has been awash with INEC’s counter affidavit to the effect that the tenure of the current executives has expired which was supposed to be a justification for the inglorious, purported Umuahiastakeholders meeting where a caretaker committee was produced.
“You will recall that His Excellencies, Peter Obi and Alex Otti a few weeks ago convened an illegal stakeholders meeting in Umuahia where they handpicked some of their cronies, a 29-member caretaker committee in the most undemocratic fashion as leaders of their faction of the party.
“They subsequently wrote a letter to the INEC on September 6, 2024, informing the commission of the purported and nonexistent leadership crisis in the party,” he added.
