The Nenadi Usman-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party (LP) has called for the arrest and prosecution of the party’s former National Chairman, Julius Abure, over an alleged invasion of the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
The Federal High Court in Abuja upheld the NWC’s legitimacy in a ruling on January 21, noting that Abure’s tenure as national chairman had elapsed and consequently ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise the Usman-led NWC as the party’s new leadership pending the conduct of the party’s national convention.
Addressing a press conference at the party’s secretariat on Monday, February 16, the new leadership accused Abure and his loyalists of attacking the premises, threatening party officials, and removing sensitive materials.
The party alleged that properties and billboards bearing the image of Interim National Chairman, Nenadi Usman, were destroyed, while laptops and financial documents were carted away.
Usman said the party had petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Department of State Services (DSS), and other security agencies to take action.
The interim national chairman added that the alleged operation by Abure’s supporters “lasted for over 30 minutes” and that they made away with “sensitive party documents, financial records, official registration materials, laptops, desktops, phones, and other critical assets.”
However, Abure’s camp, in a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, dismissed the allegations.
The statement read, “The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to an unsigned press conference purportedly by one Nenadi Usman and her cohorts, which talked about the invasion of the Labour Party’s national headquarters as well as a case of forgery, and so on.
“We need to state very clearly that the tone of the press conference was not only fallacious and laughable but one that must be dismissed with a wave of the hand.”
The faction alleged that some persons scaled the fence of the secretariat around 1:00 a.m. on February 10 and pulled down the party’s billboard before erecting Usman’s own.
Ifoh questioned how Usman gained access to the offices, insisting that there was no formal handover of the secretariat, adding that the case was still in the court.
