The Labour Party (LP), said on Thursday that its platform was not available to be used as a transaction hub for politicians bent on using it to form illegal coalitions for the 2027 polls.
The party cited the specific case of a former Minister of Finance, Sen. Nenadi Usman, which it said tried to transact with its platform with her mentor and former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from the All Progressives Congress (APC) earlier this week.
The LP’s position was contained in a statement in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh,
He stated, “Before Tuesday’s shameful but audacious display by Nenadi Usman, many attempts have been made by some desperate politicians to transact with the Labour Party with all ending in the same disastrous fate.
“We are also aware that one other group, which has continued to claim proprietary right over the Labour Party, in their recent statement indicated interest to join in this transactional frenzy to obliterate this party seen by many as the third force Nigerians are yearning for.
“We really do not know why all these interests in the Labour Party. Are there no other political parties in Nigeria?
“We have repeatedly said that the Labour Party is filled with several transactional politicians whose only purpose of joining the party was to scramble for the soul of the party.
“This explains the genesis of the crises we have witnessed in the party in the last two years.
“We have continued to warn that the Labour Party is not a merchandise that can be bought over the counter.
“It baffles us how some persons will continue to engage in a futile enterprise whose end is already foretold.”
Tracing Usman’s history in the LP, he wrote, “For emphasis, Senator Usman joined the Labour Party in 2022 in support of our Presidential candidate as an unregistered member of the party and up till presently, her name is still not in the party’s register.
“She is not known in her Ward, Local Government and the State chapters of the party. It is only in Nigeria that some desperate politicians can wake up one morning and begin to claim one position, even if such a position is not supported by any law.
“Today, it is becoming manifest why she forced her way to assume an illegal and ill-conceived transitional chairman of the Labour Party.
“Also, the unseen hands that have urged and funded her covert agenda are beginning to come out from their hiding.”
According to the LP, it has not held any talks with individuals or groups to form a coalition or merger arrangement.
Ifoh added, “It is therefore preposterous for Nenadi Usman, who is not known to be either an executive or card-carrying member of the Labour Party, to have the audacity to want to auction our party to his former mentor. For how much, I may ask?
“Nigerians must know that Nenadi Usman dragged the party to the courts seeking that the entire executives of the party from the Ward, Local Government, State and the National level be sacked and she lost in both the lower and Appeal courts.
“She was barely two years old as a non-card-carrying member of the party at that time. Today, even the six-month illegal mandate given to her in Umuahia has since elapsed but she is still sitting in a non-existing office.
“In her media release, she claimed that she was invited by her colleague in the SDP to witness el-Rufai’s defection.
“Imagine a supposed party leader saying “they” received el-Rufai into opposition fold. Was it an CNPP event?
“It’s so funny that a supposed party leader who was “appointed” to drive reforms in the Labour Party went to SDP with her sitting on the side of El-Rufai to do anti party and claim she was invited by the leadership of another political party.
“Why didn’t they invite chairmen of the other opposition political parties? This is a shallow defense and most unfortunate from Senator Nenadi Usman. Her motives have now been exposed and we urge her to quit playing double games.
“We want to state emphatically that we are not against any individual leaving or joining any political party of choice, provided such one, if elected into office on the ticket of a political party, relinquishes the mandate.
“If therefore, Nenadi Usman wants to join any other political party, she is free to do so, but transacting with the Labour Party is clearly criminal and it must be resisted.”
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