Myke Agunwa, Abuja
The controversy surrounding the Supreme Court judgment on the leadership of Labour Party (LP) may be inching to a close as the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party on Wednesday, reached out to its ousted National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure and members of his National Working Committee (NWC).
The National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the highest decision making organ of the party also stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters, Abuja, with a copy of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court judgement, informing the commission that Abure and his co-travelers have been replaced with a 29 member NCC led by Sen. Nenadi Usman and Sen. Darlington Nwokocha as Chairman and Secretary respectively.
At a well-attended NEC meeting and stakeholders’ engagement which took place at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja on Wednesday, NEC mandated the NCC to roll out programmes for the commencement of ward, local government, state, zonal and national congresses which will usher in a new set of executives for the party.
In her welcome address, Sen. Usman pledged the commitment of the NCC to internal democracy ethos.
“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 come join us to build a party that will stand with the ordinary Nigerian and a party that will ensure that the gains of democracy are available to every Nigerian. The time to make things right is now.
“The time to build a vibrant opposition is now. Nigeria belongs to all of us. It is my hope that this victory will be the threshold for the birth of a new resilient and people-centric Labour Party” she said.
She described the position of the Supreme Court as a landmark judgment that will usher in a new direction and hope for not just the party but for all Nigerians.
“The consequence of the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria is that the Labour Party can now start on its journey for a rebirth. This momentous decision of the Supreme Court is noteworthy, as it marks an auspicious moment in the history of our dear party, where truth, integrity, responsible leadership are given legal validation, thereby setting the tone for the rebirth of the Labour Party to push forward with its avowed principles to its members and the country at large.
“It is indeed a triumph for the rule of law, good governance, and for all who stand for the truth and sincerity of purpose in seeing that those with the best interests for our dear party and country are allowed to validly proceed accordingly.”
Also in his goodwill message, governor of Abia State, Alex Otti said that he had already extracted commitment from members of the NCC that they will remain neutral in the journey of building a new labour party. He charged them to trigger the process that will entrench democratic structure in the party starting with ward congresses and culminating in a national convention.
“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 midwifing those that will lead the party. We held a discussion and they don’t have any interest other than ensuring that our party remains strong”.
Dr. Otti pledged to provide all the necessary support to the NCC to ensure a smooth management of the party.
The party’s Presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi in his remarks, said that Labour party is a party for the future.
While acknowledging that a lot of mistakes were made by the party in the past, he said that LP will no longer be a transit vehicle which candidates use to win elections and dump later.
He said, “We want to build a party that will be fair, a party that will be just, a party that people can look at and say, this is how a party should be. We want to go into the next election very fully weathered. What we will be offering Nigeria are the best of people and competent people for House of Assembly, for House of Rep, for Senate, for Governor, for any level of election.
“We want to correct even mistakes we made in the past, because there were mistakes, so we need to correct it. We are going to be sure that whoever wants to contest House of Assembly now will be a Labour member not on transit”.
On mergers and alliances, he said that members of Labour party will be carried along if there is a need to go into any merger.
At the end of the event, the leader of the party, Peter Obi announced that everyone should proceed to INEC where the CTC judgment and list of NCC members will be submitted to the commission.
Present at the convention were the Vice Presidential candidate of the party Sen. Datti Baba-Ahmed, Senator Victor Umeh (Anambra Central), Senator Okey Ezea (Enugu North), Sen. Tony Nwoye (Anambra North), Sen. Ireti Kingibe (FCT), among others.