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By Myke Agunwa
Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti has disclosed that as the crisis ravaging the leadership of the Labour Party (LP) heightened, he made many unsuccessful efforts to make the sacked National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure to relinquish his position and take over the position of Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman.
A congress from the ward to the national convention where his re-election would have been validated was also mooted, but the Edo-born politician rejected both offers, Gov. Otti said.
Speaking during an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party on Wednesday in Abuja, Otti said that the former Chairman of the party had all the opportunities to regularize his stay and continue to occupy a leadership position in the party, but preferred the trappings of an illegitimate tenure.
He said that the Supreme Court Judgement was very clear in its declaration that the tenure of Abure has expired and described the last efforts he made to hold onto office as the last kick of a dying horse.
He said, “I sat with Mr. Abure last year and I asked him, what he really wanted and he said, he didn’t want anything. I said okay, I can speak to my leaders and you can be the BOT chairman. I offered that with their approval.
“If you want to still lead this party, you have to go through the process. You have to purchase a form, then the process starts, and if you win, you will return but I also gave him some piece of advice.
“I said, if I were you, I wouldn’t want to lead people who wouldn’t want me to lead them. So if you come into this kind of room, and I present myself, and I say, I want to be your chairman, and you say you don’t want to, there is no way I can impose myself.
“So we are still extending the olive branch to him and those in the former National Working Committee to sheath their sword. There is no need to fight it. We will only be delaying the doomsday because it will still happen.
“The process of setting up a National Working Committee starts from the wards. You go through ward congresses, local government congresses, state congresses, zonal congresses, and then you now elect the leaders that will go for the National Convention. You cannot start, if you want to build a three-story building, from the third floor. You must start from foundations.
“I’m sure that our experienced caretaker committee members will do the right thing at the appropriate time. They are not interested in leading the party. All they are interested in is midwiving those who will lead the party, and I know we hold a discussion.”
He congratulated those he said, remained firm and resolute and who respected “The rule of law. I want to also say that I will stand by the caretaker committee. I will support them anyhow I can, to ensure that the process is completed in no distant future, so that our party can take off,” Otti assured.
On her part, the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) Sen. Nenadi Usman thanked party members for their confidence in the party during the leadership tussle.
“May I use this opportunity to express our collective gratitude to all party members and Nigerians at large for standing firm with the caretaker committee that was instituted many months ago last year in Umuahia. They believed that a new Labour Party with a breath of fresh air was possible, and we still believe that a new Labour Party is possible.
“While celebrating our well-deserved victory, I would like to reiterate that some of the foundational truths of this great party of ours are unity, team spirit, social justice and reconciliation.
“The apex court has rightly delivered its judgment, and it is time for all to sheathe their swords. I, therefore, call on all party members, whether aggrieved by the decision of the Supreme Court or not, to set aside their grievances and ambitions and join us to build a party that will stand with the ordinary Nigerians and a party that will ensure that the gains of democracy are available to every Nigerian. The time to make things right is now”.