By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The National Transition Committee (NTC) of the Labour Party has clarified that the embattled chairman of the party, Mr Julius Abure, was suspended from office by the Edo State chapter of the group as an ordinary member and not as chairman.
The committee, which is the highest public engagement body of the political party headed by a former chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Omar Abdulwaheed, said Mr Abure seized to be the chairman of the Labour Party since 2023.
Mr Abdulwaheed, speaking in Abuja through the chairman of the NTC’s sub-committee on Media and Publicity, Mr Tony Akeni, said the courageous action led by Abure’s ward chairman, Mr Thompson Ehiguese, and his ward officers, was commendable.
“As a law-abiding party and process-respecting committee, we have been waiting for the documents of the suspension action before putting a statement out.
The NTC received them today (Sunday) and our legal experts have thoroughly analysed them. The infractions adduced in the document of suspension correspond with solid evidence of Abure’s incredible combinations of gross administrative, financial and anti-party misconduct already long in our possession,” he said.
The labour leader further said, “Having done that due diligence, I wish to assure you that our party in Edo State has done a splendid and legally impeccable job of Abure’s suspension, and could even have gone farther!”
“From a plethora of evidence before us, the Abure we all now know is a walking mountain of anti-party contraventions against both our party’s constitution and the laws of Nigeria. Like a burst abscess, the suspension comes as a huge relief to the body of our party both in Edo state and nationwide,” he added.
Mr Abdulwaheed said, “Let me make further necessary clarification on the action that just took place a few days ago in Edo state. Please, note this very well. Julius Abure was not suspended from our party as national chairman of the party but as an ordinary member of the party.
“This is because by Justice Gabriel Kolawole’s consent judgement of March 20, 2018, and by the mediation terms of a sequel irrefutable agreement signed on June 27, 2022, among the suspended former national chairman, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the incontestable owners and landlord of Labour Party, an agreement whose terms and documents were witnessed and are in co-custody of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abure’s chairmanship tenure and his entire National Working Committee (NWC) comprehensively terminated since June 27, 2023.
“The documents of that judgement and its legal ramifications are in the public domain for every sincere Labour Party member, public researcher and legal pundit to examine for themselves.”
