The National Working Committee of the Labour Party has described as fake, the purported suspension of its National Chairman, Julius Abure, by the executives of Ward 3, in Arue-Uromi, Esan North- East Local Government Area.
The State Working Committee, on Friday, May 24, 2024, ratified the purported suspension of the party’s national chairman in Benin City.
But the National Working Committee of the party, on Saturday, maintained that its national chairman has not been suspended by the executives of Ward 3, Arue-Uromi, Esan North East of Edo State.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, declared through a statement on Saturday that the ward chairman of the party, Thompson Ehiguese, lacks the power under the constitution of the party to either remove or suspend a national chairman.
Ifoh added that Thompson Ehiguese, the chairman of the ward, has also in a viral video debunked the purported suspension insisting that the ward leadership is loyal to the chairman and also very much aware that it lacks the powers under the constitution of the party to either remove or suspend a national chairman.
According to him, the ward, local government or even the state have no powers under the constitution to suspend the national chairman.
“Court of Appeal, Benin Division on the 14th day of August 2023 presided over by Justice Theresa Ngolika Orji-Abadua in a case brought before it by Lucky Shaibu and others against Julius Abure and others corroborated with the judgement of the lower court in their ruling that the National Chairman of the Labour Party cannot be suspended or removed by the Ward executive,”he said.
He said the leadership of the party, is, however investigating the source of the purported letter of suspension and will summarily act in accordance with the party rules in disciplining any officer of the party found guilty of contravening the rules of the party.
