The stakeholders of the Labour Party (LP) have suspended the National Treasurer, Oluchi Okpara, for six months over her recent fraud and abuse of office accusations against the National Chairman, Julius Abure and the party.
During a press conference, on Monday, Okpara accused Abure of financial malfeasance and challenged the national chairman to account for the more than N3.5 billion the Labour Party made from the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms during the 2023 general election.
Meanwhile, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, while speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, denied every allegation made by Okpara against Abure, noting that she had been a mole inside the party who connived with outside forces to bring it down.
According to Obiora, Okpara ignored the constituted authority that was put in place by the party to look into her allegations and handle the problem internally when she went ahead with the press conference.
He said she also disregarded the Wednesday summons from the disciplinary committee that was set up by an emergency national working committee (NWC) to look into her case.
The publicity secretary equally accused the treasurer of demanding a duplex in the highbrow area of Abuja, a brand new car, and a huge sum as her price when the party pleaded with her to be calm and let the committee it had set up to look into the allegations she had made.
Ifoh said, “five members of the National working committee of the party chose to be agents of disunity, the whole country supported us as we flushed them out. Starting from that euphoria, little did we know that the fumigation was far from complete until late last year when signs emanated that Opkara, a key member of the executives, turned out to be a mole in the house and has continued networking with the expelled members of the party leadership.
He added that Okpara featured in an ARISE television programme to further disrepute the Labour party and mislead the viewing public on the internal affairs of the party against the rules and regulations of the party.
“Convinced that Okpara is on a mission to stifle life out of our very cherished party, LP, an emergency NWC was summoned yesterday. Arising from the meeting, the NWC set up a disciplinary committee to try Opara for bringing the party to disrepute.
Ifoh said, “We see this as an affront to the party leadership and our members who are watching on how their party’s image which they have labored hard to build is trolled by one ingrate. The disciplinary committee has, however, recommended to the national executive council of the party, through the NWC, that Opara be suspended from the Labour Party, LP for a minimum of six months. This suspension is with immediate effect.
“We sincerely regret this development. We, however, urge our members to understand this is a price to pay for success. We will strive to reform the party until we achieve the best, good enough to drive our New Nigeria agenda.”
