The Interim National Working Committee (INWC) of the Labour Party (LP), has criticized the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for excluding the party’s candidates from the August 16 bye-elections held across the country.
The Labour Party INWC, headed by Senator Nenadi Usman, said the action of INEC is a direct disobedience of a Supreme Court order, which recognized a fresh leadership of the party.
The statement also accused the Julius Abure faction of conniving with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to deny Labour Party representation on the ballot.
The INWC said the Supreme Court has unequivocally recognised Senator Esther Nenadi Usman-led Interim National Working Committee as the authentic leadership of the Labour Party and Julius Abure and his co-travellers have proved once more by these by-elections that, as usual, they were on yet another unabashed mission to destroy the party’s strong electoral potential on behalf of their well-known paymasters.
The party insisted that INEC cannot deny that it does not have the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court judgement, which affirmed Senator Esther Nenadi Usman and Senator Darlington Nwokocha as leaders of the Labour Party.
The party used the opportunity to apologise to all its candidates who had prepared to contest the August 16 by-elections but were denied the opportunity at the last minute. It added that, given a level playing ground, and the party’s masses serving ideology, its candidates would have trounced the APC at the polls.
The statement added that efforts were already ongoing to ensure the party is not disenfranchized in future elections.
“We feel your pains knowing that you prepared at much cost, suffered the rigours of campaigns, assets mobilization, logistics losses and psychological trauma as you were, and at the last minute, denied your constitutional rights and opportunities to contest the elections by the tripartite conspiracy of Abure’s expired council and INEC’s delayed interpretation and execution of the Supreme Court judgement of April 4, following the scripts of their common masters.
“We call on you to remain steadfast to the call, cause, and concourse of the Labour Party’s unmatched masses-driven ideology for good governance. Remain steadfast and ready to fight another day.
“Through your clear-headed manifestos, which are undoubtedly a reflection of Peter Obi’s ideology for good governance delivery and a Nigeria that works for all, Nigeria shall be free one day, and that day is not far away.
“To prepare for that day, our council is doing everything necessary to have INEC fully, unequivocally, and expeditiously recognize the brand new leadership of the Labour Party, ready and ship-shape for all elections here forward. This is so that the ballot apartheid and franchise robbery that excluded LP candidates from the August 16th by-elections of our country will never recur in any manner. Never again.
“Working together with His Excellency Peter Obi, Sen. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, His Excellency Governor Alex Otti, all serving Senators, House of Representatives, and other elected members of our great party, we are poised to reposition the Labour Party for the 2027 elections ahead.
“Our country is in dire danger on multiple fronts from the havoc of misrule, pandemic insecurity, corruption, and marathon foreign borrowings in a reckless manner primed to plunge our present and future generations into epic macro-economic suicide.
“The Labour Party is calling on all Nigerians to join hands to salvage our party’s lost opportunities, redeem our stolen progress, and regain our once hard-earned acres of Papa-Mama-Pikin political space.
“We call on organized labour, civil society groups, and the pro-democracy community of Nigeria to rally around the clarion call for the political liberation of Nigeria.
“Throughout our country, the Labour Party is the only true home for all unions under the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and civil society movements for good governance. For you and your children, it is where your labours and entitlements, in-service and out-of-service life as workers and advocates of good governance, best thrive.
“I will freely admit this. The Labour Party alone cannot liberate Nigeria. So, today our party opens its doors and arms to all unions and democracy movements throughout our country for a save-Nigeria partnership. I invite you to form with us a collective ‘Salvation Army’ for the rescue of our country,” the statement read.
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