LP caretaker committee renews bid to prosecute Abure

The crisis unsettling the Labour Party (LP) is not abating any time soon as the factional Caretaker Committee of the party led by a former Minister of Finance, Nanedi Usman, is pushing for the prosecution of the National Chairman, Mr Julius Abure, and other officials, alleging criminal conspiracy, perjury and forgery against them.

On Monday in Abuja, the Chairman of the Nigerian Corruption Watch, Prince Dandy Rowland, speaking on behalf of the former minister, told a press conference that Abure and some officers of the party ought to have been prosecuted by now.

According to the faction, the Inspector-General of Police has since ordered the prosecution of the LP’s chairman and the other officers.

She stated, “The Labour Party LP wishes to commend the Commissioner of Police, Legal Prosecution Section, Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Force Headquarters Abuja, FCT, in the Office of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, who wrote to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and Minister of Justice on the 25th October, 2023, forwarding the duplicate case diary after establishing a culpable primary facie case for which the IGP authorized the prosecution of Julius Abure, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, Ojukwu Clement and Edward Nkwegu in the referenced case of perjury, forgery and criminal conspiracy CR: 3100/ X LEG/ FHQ/ ABJ/ VOL.II dated 25th October, 2023.”

The former minister added, “It was further revealed from the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the documents obtained as uploaded in the INEC Portal for the Ebonyi State 2023 Gubernatorial elections, that Julius Abure and Umar Farouk Ibrahim forged a court order with which they criminally and illegally removed the name of Oko Eze the validly nominated 2023 Labour Party (LP) Gubernatorial candidate even after the Supreme Court in its judgment held that Oko Eze was the validly nominated 2023 Labour Party Gubernatorial candidate in Ebonyi State.”

She expressed surprise why the prosecution had not been effected, saying that it raised questions on readiness of the administration of President Bola Tinubu to tackle such matters head on.

However, reacting to the development, the LP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, expressed shock that Usman was still addressing herself as having any business to do with the party.

Ifoh dismissed her, saying that the only leadership of the LP known to law was the current one headed by Abure as the national chairman.

Meanwhile, the party under Abure has dismissed the recent attacks on his leadership by Prof Theophilus Ndubaku, the chairman of the LP Transition Committee.

Ifoh, in a statement on Monday, described the attacks on Abure as “fallacious, misleading and a calculated attempt to malign” him.

He said, “First the forensic report and the investigative Police report from the police have stated clearly that there was no forgery.

“The file that was forwarded to the Attorney-General has since been returned to the police on the grounds that the forensic report exonerated the four persons clearly. Meaning that they have no case to answer and this is to the knowledge of Prof Ndubaku.

“It is therefore laughable that someone will be giving an ultimatum to the AGF in a case that is not in existence. It is therefore clear that Ndubaku and his gang are acting in bad fate, using every available opportunity to tarnish the image of the party. Members of the public have since known them for their rascality.

“Secondly, it is in the public domain that some of these people assiduously and violently working to take over the leadership of the party are not even members of the party, including Ndubaku.

“The NLC, according to the laws that established, it has no power to even set up the political commission in the first instance. Letters from INEC, Ministry of Labour and other quarters have pointed to this fact.”

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