By Abiola Olawale
The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) has once again hit the headlines as a factional National Chairman of the party, Barr. Julius Abure, and the factional National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, attended the quarterly consultative meeting between political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This was confirmed in a statement issued by the faction’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
According to Ifoh, Abure, on the sidelines of the meeting, held talks with the acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, over the recognition of the Labour Party’s candidates for the FCT Area Council elections.
In the statement, Ifoh quoted Agbamuche-Mbu as saying that she will look into the demand for the upload of the party’s candidates for the FCT Area Council elections.
The statement reads in part: “The INEC Chair, who spoke with the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure, on Tuesday at the INEC headquarters during the quarterly Consultative meeting between the commission and the leadership of the political parties in Nigeria, assured that she will ‘look into the matter.”
“The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure, and the National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, were in attendance as the authentic and recognized leadership of the Labour Party.
Abure, however, congratulated the INEC’s acting chairman, Mrs Agbamuche Mbu, on her recent appointment and her leadership of the electoral commission.
“In paying tribute to the acting chairman, the Labour Party chairman, while appreciating her, stated that once lawyers are on the saddle of leadership, it reduces, and sometimes brings to an end, impunity and injustice to the system.”
The New Diplomat reports that the crisis rocking the Labour Party has torn the party into two factions.
One led by Abure and the other led by Senators Nenadi Usman and Darlington Nwochocha.