INEC TO Abure-Led Labour Party NWC:  We Did Not Monitor The Nnewi Convention

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The end to the legitimacy problem besetting the Julius Abure-led Labour Party, LP, National Working Committee, NWC, appears not to be in sight.

The Labour Party had  before, during and after its Nnewi Convention, been faced with a debilitating leadership crisis.

Before the Nnewi controversial Convention of March 27 ,2024, the Party hierarchy had been hugely divided over  some issues bordering on alleged non-  consultations with all relevant stakeholders.

The disagreement saw the Presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 General Elections, Peter Obi, the National Assembly caucus of the party, its only State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, and many other top stakeholders boycott the Convention.

Although the National Chairman, Abure, as well as old members of the NWC, succeeded in being re-elected into office at the contentious Convention, they have, nevertheless, been battling strenuously for legitimacy and acceptability.

Most of the aggrieved party stalwarts that boycotted the Convention, including Obi and the National Assembly members, have continued to distance themselves from the party’s NWC and indeed its activities.

The legitimacy crisis appears now to have  been escalated by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, following its response letter to the LP leadership’s request for the electoral umpire to avail it of the Certified True Copy of its report  on the LP Convention and the Party’s Constitution.

In the INEC’s letter dated July 18 2024 ,and endorsed by its Acting Secretary, Haliru Aminu ,the electoral body while acknowledging the receipt of  Labour Party’s letter of request, however noted that it never monitored the Nnewi Convention.

“The Commission has received your request for a Certified True Copy, CTC, of the monitored report of the Labour Party  Convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, held on the 27th day of March 2024, and the Labour Party’s Constitution.

“The Certified True Copy of the Labour Party Constitution has been forwarded to your firm earlier.

“Regrettably, the Commission did not  monitor the Labour Party Convention of 27th March 2024 and cannot, therefore, report on the Convention”, INEC stated