LP Crisis: Abure, Others have no criminal Issue, Labour Party Replies Nenadi Usman
The Labour Party on Tuesday said its National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure and other National Working Committee members have no criminal matter against them.
Addressing a Press Conference in Abeokuta, the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Abayomi Arabambi said the call for the retrial of Abure for criminal conspiracy by the National Caretaker of the Party does not arise as the Appeal Court has given both Abure and other leadership of the Party a clean bill of health.
It could be recalled that the Senator Nanedi Usman-led Caretaker Committee on Monday while addressing a Press Conference in Abuja insisted on prosecuting Comrade Julius Abure and some of the party’s national officers for perjury, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Chairman of the Nigerian Corruption Watch, Prince Dandy Rowland, who read the text of a press conference on behalf of Usman, said it was mysterious that Abure and “his cohorts” were still roaming the streets despite a directive by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to prosecute them.
They then called on Inspector General of Police to represent the case file before the Inspector General of Police for possible prosecution of Abure and others allegedly indicted for Perjury and criminal conspiracy.
But while addressing the Press on Tuesday, Arabambi said the call for the retrial of Abure and others on the Perjury or other criminal matters has been settled by the Appeal Court.
“The attention of Labour party National Working Committee under the Leadership of Bar Julius Abure and Alh Farouk Umar Ibrahim has been drawn to a press conference held by Prof Theophilus Ndubaku of NLC political Commission, in company of a group led by one Prince Roland Dante who claimed to the chairman of Nigeria Corruption watch and a couple of some sacked former members of the Labour Party and a few other unknown faces wherein they attempted to cast aspersion on the leadership of the Labour Party and to also hoodwink the public as they have done severally in the past.
“First the forensic report and the investigative Police report from the Police have stated clearly that there was no forgery. The file that was forwarded to the Attorney General has since been returned to the Police on the ground that the forensic report exonerated the four persons in its entirety
He said that “the Court of Appeal in a judgement delivered by Hon Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, Hon Justice Adebukola Banjoko and Hon Justice Peter Chudi Obiorah on the 6th day of March 2023 in suit nos CA/ABJ//CV/559/2023 has set aside the allegations of Forgery , Perjury and Criminal conspiracy and only the supreme Court is the only court that has the jurisdiction set it Aside
“The Inspector General of police cannot thus be held culpable of any misdeed and abdication of duties to prosecute since the court of appeal judgement was the major reasons why the police cannot proceed as directed
“Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku and his master Mr Joe Ajaero must at this juncture know that Bar Julius Abure, Alh Farouk Umar Ibrahim and Clement Ojukwu have no case to answer.
‘It is therefore laughable that someone will be giving an ultimatum to the Attorney General of the Federation in a case that has already been settled by the court of Appeal. It is therefore clear that Mr. Ndubaku and his gang action are clearly antithetical to all provisions of the 1999 constitution as amended with respect to strict adherence to rule of law
“Their further attempts to use every available opportunity to tarnish the image of the party leadership base of any form of intimidation and conducting themselves as public nuisance will no more be tolerated
“Secondly, it is in the public domain that some of these people are working to take over the leadership of the party are not even members of the party, including Prof Ndubaku and his gang of political terrorists.
“The NLC according to the laws that established it has no power to even set up the Political Commission in the first instance. Letters from INEC, Ministry of Labour and other quarters have pointed to this fact.
Also, the last time we checked, the leadership of the NLC in their last NEC meeting set up a committee to work out an alliance between it and other political parties ahead of the 2027 general election.
“So Prof Ndubaku and his cohorts are even not aware that the cabal that set his Transition Committee has since left the bus stop. So who are they working for?
Labour party therefore wishes to sincerely advise Prof . Ndubaku and his co-travellers go and look for another job to do in this political business, because the Labour Party is different from other political parties.
We have shown that we are a great and purposeful organization working for the greater interest of Nigeria thus NLC Leadership must be dreaming if they think that they can hijack the Labour Party and use it for their selfish goal of political insurrection
“Labour Party is not available for that, and we advise them to go and find a decent job to do. No amount of pressure, blackmail or false information can force the LP leadership to handover the party to them.
