Labour Party’s (LP) caretaker committee chairperson, Nenadi Usman, has dared Julius Abure to follow through on his threat to expose Peter Obi, Alex Otti and other key members aligned with her faction of the party.
While appearing on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Friday, Usman dismissed Abure’s threats as bluster, challenging him to bring forward any evidence he claims to have.
Prior in the week, Abure, factional national chairman of Labour Party, had accused Obi, Otti and others of hypocrisy over 2023 election funding, threatening to reveal damaging information about them.
Abure said: “I am waiting for them—from top to bottom—to make any other move and I will open my mouth.
“And when I open my mouth, wherever they go, they will be like smelly eggs, rotten eggs that nobody will ever buy.”
In response, Usman said the Labour Party has documented evidence of Abure’s misconduct, some of which is already under police investigation.
“Well, I am challenging him to expose us. If you have anybody to expose, you don’t go and talk now, you go and expose them,” she said.
“We have a lot of things about him and that is why the people whom he did it to went to the police. The police are investigating him and very soon you will hear about it.”
“Generally, you would agree with me that every democracy needs to have a vibrant opposition.
“So when the opposition wants to become part of the ruling party, then there’s a problem. And that is where we are today.
“Principally, the Labour Party leadership at some point had issues with INEC because the tenure of Abure and his NWC had come to an end.
“Which was why when INEC invited leaders of political parties, he attended the meeting and was told to step out with his secretary.”
After being sidelined by INEC, Abure went to court and initially won a ruling directing INEC to recognise him. However, Usman said the matter escalated to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that the lower courts lacked jurisdiction.
“We went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court looked at the issue critically and said the two lower courts didn’t have any jurisdiction,” she said.
“They said his tenure was over, he is not the chairman, he’s no longer the chairman of the Labour Party.”
“Even Julius Abure, if he still wants to remain chairman, he could go through the election,” she said.
“But he doesn’t want to go through election — his NWC, they don’t want to go through election.
“They just want to be using the courts to remain as leaders. I think that’s not good for opposition.”