By Abiola Olawale
The crisis rocking the Labour Party has taken another dimension as bigwigs of the party appear to have kicked out their National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure.
This is as a former minister of finance, Senator Nnenadi Usman, emerged as the chairman of a 29-member national caretaker committee of the Labour Party.
She was appointed as the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee at the Labour Party’s extended stakeholders meeting, which was held at the Banquet Hall of the Abia State Government House in Umuahia, Abia State, on Wednesday.
It would be recalled that Governor Alex Otti of Abia State and former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, had convened the meeting over the leadership crisis rocking the party.
Arising from the meeting, Otti, Obi among other stakeholders said they resolved to constitute a Caretaker Committee saddled with the responsibility of rescuing the party from its current leadership crisis and organize a convention where a new leadership of the party would emerge from the Ward to the national level.
Usman, a former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who represented Kaduna South Senatorial District of Kaduna state at the Senate emerged as the Chairman after extensive deliberations.
Also, appointed to work with the former Senator is the 2023 Abia Central Senatorial candidate of the party in Abia State, Hon. Darlington Nwokocha.
In her acceptance speech, the former finance minister who emphasized the need for the party stalwarts and members to work together, promised to do her job with utmost diligence.
Among those present were the 2023 vice presidential candidate of LP, Datti Ahmed; Senator Victor Umeh and Lagos State governorship candidate of LP in 2023, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
The New Diplomat reports that the Labour Party has been witnessing an undending crisis over the past few months.
Several stakeholders in the Labour Party had demanded the resignation of the party’s chairman national chairman, Abure over allegations of misappropriation of the party’s funds and misuse of power.
Also, Abure had endured a tussle with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) under the leadership of Comrade Joe Ajaero.
Several members of the party had also called for Abure’s resignation as party chairman on grounds of misappropriation. They also canvassed the immediate constitution of a caretaker transition committee following the failure of Abure to organise a legitimate and all-inclusive national convention for the party.
However, despite the issues, the Labour Party was said to have held a national convention on March 27, 2024, which produced Abure as the National Chairman of the party for the second time.
