By Abiola Olawale
The National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Abayomi Arabambi, has revealed that the party is working round the clock to put its house together.
This, according to him, is to prevent the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, from jumping ship to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2027 general election.
Arabambi, who spoke with the press on Friday, June 7, said stakeholders were working to end the leadership crisis within the party.
He stated that the LP is aware of certain individuals within the PDP, who intend to exploit the turmoil in the party to lure Obi into joining the PDP.
He said: “Politically, we will not allow the crisis to fester for long that we will now allow Mr Peter Obi to join Atiku (Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019 and 2023 election cycles).
“We knew their plans, that was why we said ‘we need to explore political solution between ourselves.’”
The New Diplomat reports that the Labour Party has been witnessing a crisis over the past few months.
Many stakeholders in the party had demanded the resignation of its national chairman, Barr Julius Abure, over allegations of misappropriation of the party funds and misuse of power.
Also, Abure had endured a tussle with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) under the leadership of Comrade Joe Ajaero. The NLC called for Abure’s resignation the immediate constitution of a caretaker transition committee, over the failure to organise a legitimate and all-inclusive national convention for the party.
The situation took a dramatic turn when Abure was purportedly suspended in a letter dated May 14, 2024, by his Ward in the Arue-Uromi area of Esan North-East local government in Edo State, for alleged high-handedness and anti-party activities.
However, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party kicked against the action, declaring the suspension “illegal and unconstitutional.”
