End of the road as INEC says Abure no longer Labour Party chairman

 

Maureen Aguta

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it no longer recognises Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), declaring his continued claim to the position as “illegal and unconstitutional.”

According to INEC, Abure’s tenure, along with that of the party’s national working committee, expired in June 2024.

In a counter-affidavit filed by INEC, the electoral body responded to a lawsuit by the Labour Party, which challenged its exclusion from the commission’s refresher training for uploading party agents ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

INEC argued that the party’s leadership, including Abure, is invalid and that the March 2024 National Convention that re-elected Abure as chairman violated both the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act.

INEC emphasised, “It only deals with parties that have legitimate leadership in place.”

The electoral body, through its legal team led by Tanko Inuwa, SAN, also stated that the Labour Party’s suit sought declaratory reliefs that could not be granted based on admissions alone, asserting that the party needed to prove its case.

Due to the failure of the Labour Party to meet legal requirements for holding its national convention, INEC argued, the party no longer has valid leadership.

The commission urged the court to dismiss the Labour Party’s suit, maintaining, “The Labour Party is not entitled to the reliefs it is seeking.”

During a recent press conference in Abuja, Abure had refuted allegations of embezzlement, asserting that he had no direct access to or involvement with the campaign funds.

“The party and I have been accused of being responsible for Peter Obi’s failure in the 2023 general election. They stated that the campaign, election donations and funds for the payment of agents were mismanaged by the party hence Peter Obi failed in the election,” Abure had stated.

He had alleged, “The election funding was done by Obi himself. As per the donations, the party was not involved. The signatories to these accounts were Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo. They were equally responsible for the payment of Polling Unit Agents.”

While reacting to Abure’s comment in a viral video posted on her official YouTube account, Yesufu, who is also the chairman of the campaign fundraising team, called Abure “very shameless” for claiming that polling unit agents were not paid.

She questioned, “What happened to all the millions that people used to buy tickets? You couldn’t use any of it to pay agents.”

She accused Abure of engaging in outdated practices, saying, “Abure thinks it is in those days when they were doing unionism when nobody had access to the internet, and nobody kept records. They would say anything and get away with it.”