The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Julius Abure, has rejected a meeting organized by Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, in Umuahia, branding it unconstitutional and unauthorized under the party\u2019s rules. The meeting, which Otti reportedly convened with various stakeholders of the party, has drawn sharp criticism from the party\u2019s leadership for overstepping the bounds of party regulations.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Thursday by Labour Party\u2019s spokesperson, Mr. Obiora Ifoh, Abure expressed his disapproval of the gathering, stressing that neither Otti nor any other individuals who participated in the Umuahia meeting had the constitutional authority to convene such an assembly. He emphasized that the meeting contravened both the Labour Party\u2019s internal constitution, the Nigerian Electoral Act, and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Abure underscored the fact that there was no provision within the party\u2019s structure that legitimized the meeting in Umuahia. \u201cExpanded stakeholders’ meetings are not recognized as a legitimate organ under our party\u2019s constitution,\u201d Abure pointed out. He cited Article 11 of the Labour Party Constitution, stating that the party operates across four levels of organization: ward, local government area, state, and national levels. These organizational structures, according to the party’s guidelines, also apply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.<\/p>\n
Elaborating further, Abure referred to Article 12 of the party\u2019s constitution, which outlines the 12 principal organs of the party. These include the National Convention, National Executive Council, National Working Committee, Board of Trustees, and State Congress. Other key organs are the State Executive Council, State Working Committee, Local Government Congress, Local Government Area Council, Local Government Area Working Committee, Ward Congress, and Ward Executive Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combined reading of these provisions shows clearly that the so-called meeting in Umuahia is a complete charade,\u201d Abure said, adding that it was nothing more than a “waste of time and resources of the Abia people.” He accused Otti of acting on a faulty and mischievous premise, asserting that the Abia governor\u2019s actions were not in line with proper party procedures.<\/p>\n
Abure further emphasized that the business of governance and party operations are not conducted verbally or through informal means, but must adhere to official communication protocols. \u201cGovernment and party business is not transacted verbally but through official communication and correspondences which are done in writing,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
He also clarified that there had been no official communication from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) concerning any objections to the Labour Party’s National Convention. According to Abure, this renders Otti\u2019s meeting baseless and without merit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI challenge Governor Alex Otti to produce any official correspondence from INEC authorizing this meeting or addressing any objections to the National Convention,\u201d Abure stated. He reiterated that there was no leadership vacuum within the Labour Party, as the current leadership structure remains intact.<\/p>\n
The rejection of Otti\u2019s meeting highlights growing tensions within the Labour Party, as different factions wrestle over control and direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Julius Abure, has rejected a meeting organized by Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, in Umuahia, branding it unconstitutional and unauthorized under the party\u2019s rules. The meeting, which Otti reportedly convened with various stakeholders of the party, has drawn sharp criticism from the party\u2019s leadership for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-47268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47269,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47268\/revisions\/47269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}