Anxiety in LP as INEC delays caretaker panel’s recognition

There is growing concern in the camp of the Senator Nenadi Usman-led Labour Party Caretaker Committee over the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant recognition to the panel two weeks after its emergence.

The 29-member committee inaugurated at a meeting of stakeholders spearheaded by Abia State Governor Alex Otti and the party’s national leader, Peter Obi, has been tasked with the mandate to conduct elections for new executives at all levels.

However, since its inauguration on September 4, the long wait for INEC to confer legitimacy on the committee is reportedly stalling its progress.

A member of the committee, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the issue, expressed concerns that INEC has failed to officially act on their request since the letter was submitted on September 6.

According to the source, the delay has become a source of worry after INEC urged them to wait for the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the party leadership, which is currently before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

This legitimacy hurdle comes barely a week after The PUNCH reported that Julius Abure, the embattled Labour Party National Chairman, had dragged INEC to court to stop the commission from officially recognising the Usman-led leadership.

The source admitted that nobody expected to still be facing this bottleneck two weeks after the committee came on board.

“The original plan was to persuade Abure or some members of his National Working Committee to attend the Umuahia meeting so that INEC could give the meeting some form of legitimacy. Unfortunately, none of them turned up at the gathering. Their absence somehow defeated the purpose, leaving INEC to say that its hands were tied.

“Another challenge we encountered was that the first letter we wrote for recognition on September 6 was rejected because, unlike Otti, someone else signed the letter on behalf of Obi. That made the INEC officials insist they couldn’t work with a proxy endorsement,” the source explained.

However, the committee has sought an injunction from a state High Court in Aba, Abia State, to restrain the Abure-led executives from parading themselves as party officers.

In anticipation of the injunction, Usman and some party chieftains converged on Abuja on Tuesday to officially kick off the inaugural meeting of the caretaker committee.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were the Labour Party vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, and Otti’s Deputy Governor, Ikechukwu Emetu.

Efforts to reach Usman and the caretaker committee secretary, Darlington Nwokocha, were unsuccessful. As of the time of filing this report, they neither answered calls nor replied to messages seeking clarification.

When contacted, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, insisted that the opposition party did not recognise the committee.

Ifoh also called on party faithful not to give any recognition to Usman and her team, whom he described as “destabilising agents out to wreak havoc on the party.”

He said, “Our party is intact, and we will not allow visitors to chase us out of the house we laboured to build. Some of them are barely one year old in the party, and they are already positioning themselves and their allies to take over.

“The Labour Party is run by a constitution, and anything unconstitutional will not be accepted.”