A former Minister of Finance, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, has emerged as the national caretaker committee chairman of the Labour Party (LP).
The immediate-past Senate Minority Deputy Leader and 2023 Abia Central Senatorial candidate of the party Darlington Nwokocha, emerged Secretary of the 29-member caretaker committee.
The caretaker committee is to rescue the party from its current leadership crisis, and organise a convention where a new leadership of the party would emerge from the Ward to the national stage.
Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the party, who announced the development, said the decision was taken at the Party’s extended stakeholders meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Abia State Government House in Umuahia, the Abia State capital on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.
Hosted by Governor Alex Otti, the well-attended stakeholders meeting, also had the party’s 2023 Vice-Presidential candidate, Datti Ahmed; Senator Victor Umeh; Lagos State governorship candidate of LP in 2023, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and other party members.
The former chairman of the party, Julius Abure, was absent at the meeting.
In her acceptance speech, Usman emphasised the need for the party to work together.
Formerly a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Usman represented Kaduna South Senatorial District in the National Assembly between 2011 and 2015. She defected to the Labour Party during the 2023 general election.
Meanwhile, the former chairman of the party, Julius Abure, even though absent at the meeting, has rejected the outcome of the parley.
Abure and the party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, declared the meeting illegal and unconstitutional.
They argued that Governor Otti and the other participants lack the authority, as defined by the party’s constitution, the Electoral Act, and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to convene any meeting of the party. They emphasized that an expanded stakeholders’ meeting is not recognized by the party’s constitution.
