Barr. Julius Abure is the National Chairman of Labour Party. He clears the air on the forgery allegation and substitution of candidates level against him by some candidates. MYKE UZENDU was there for The New National Star.
Q. There are series of accusations linking you to the illegal substitution of candidates and forgery in Ebonyi and Edo States. What actually transpired during the nomination of candidates.
ANS: After the general meeting in 2023, the party and even myself as the National Chairman of the party, have been faced with several challenges and in some occasions, threat to life and other numerous accusations and harassment. We have seen situations in the party where some people have been sponsored to cause chaos, to cause disharmony in the party.
We are however not discouraged with some of these challenges because we strongly believe that freedom doses not come easy. Freedom fighters face a lot of challenges. The struggle for a new Nigeria is really challenging. The struggle for a new country that will change the statusquo, isn’t going to be an easy one.
No candidate of the party was illegally substituted. No person’s signature was forged. Those people who were making those allegations are procured by our adversaries, by those who are afraid of the fortunes of the party and are therefore working to disorganize the party.
The so called Speldour Eze from Ebonyi state, who claimed to be candidate of the party and was wrongly substituted was never a candidate of the party. He wrote a letter of withdrawal which he submitted which is going to be given to the press. I want you to do a comparism between the letter he submitted and his affidavit in support of personal particulars.
He did withdrew and we conducted a fresh primary’s which gave rise to the candidate of the party, Edward Ukaegbu.
Q. How prepared is your party for the upcoming Edo governorship election.
ANS: The challenges we have in the country is poor leadership and the parties that are responsible for giving us poor leaders over the years are PDP and APC. If we have challenges that has to do with poor leadership, then I will put the blame squarely on the table of those two political parties who have been responsible for giving us leaders.
I believe very strongly that when parties lack internal party democracy, when there is no competition, when there is no transparency, when there is no accountability, the best can never emerge. Now that I have the priviledge, as the national chairman of this party, I cannot be seen doing less than what I believe in.
I therefore want to assure the people of Edo, that the Labour Party primaries will be transparent, will be competitive. Members of the party will determine who become the guber candidate of the party.
I am also saying this against the backdrop that there are also accusations that I am aligning with the governor to bring a weak candidate, an unpopular candidate, that I have been bribed to shortchange the party.
You all know the history of the party, when the party was a transactional party. Today, the party is a major opposition party in Nigeria. I can say clearly that we are the only opposition party in Nigeria and our Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi has said it very clearly that we will play the role of opposition effectively.
So having this opportunity that history has placed on our hands, having this opportunity of leading this party at this time especially at a time when Nigeria is at a cross road, where nothing is working in the country, we cannot compromise the integrity of our party. I cannot shortchange my party. I cannot do any dis-service to the party. I will remain a worthy, credible ambassador of the party. I will always want to put myself in a position where I will speak truth at all times. Where I can be in a position to make decisions that will be in the best interest of the party.
Today, the party has become a major force in Edo and we have the opportunity to be able to produce a governor in Edo. I say this very clearly because the indicators are clear. You will agree with me that Edo is an Obidient state and I am equally from that state. So, it is my determination and desire to ensure that we have credible, intelligent, result oriented, vibrant goal getter who become the governor of Edo next year.
In Edo who have been so unfortunate to have governors who didn’t have the passion and commitment to work for the state. Even during the military era, Edo people were unfortunate to have governors posted to Edo who were not indigenes of the state. They didn’t care about developing the state.
Unfortunately, when democracy returned, we also had governors who were not interested in the growth and development of the state.
Today, Edo people are determined and desirous and looking up to Labour Party to give them a viable, strong and result oriented governor who can change the political trajectory of Edo state. So, I will never compromise the interest of the party in Edo state.
Q. There are agitations that the nomination form of your party is expensive and out of reach of the average Nigerian.
ANS: The party’s National Working Committee met, considered all the variable, put all the factors together before arriving at that cost. The party needs a lot of funds in order to drive the electioneering process. No matter how you conduct the primarys, even after the elections, litigations are going to arise from whatever you do and those litigations cost a lot of money. Even organizing the primary is costly.
When the party was not as big as this, you could explain to the people that you don’t have money to give but today, people believe that we have money. If you send anybody for any assignment, you must pay them adequately.
Also a lot of members of political parties don’t pay dues, people don’t support political parties. The only source of funding for this party as it stands now is through the sale of nomination forms. Funding the party, responding to the challenges in the party makes it imperative for us to arrive at that amount. I also want to say that it is about the cheapest within the political parties. We believe that we must be able to draw a line between our philosophy and the reality on ground.
Election is expensive in Nigeria. We believe that candidates that are not able to afford nomination forms may not be able to conclude the process of electioneering.
Q. There are allegations that you have been compromised ahead of Edo election.
ANS: I am not running; I am not interested. I will conduct free, fair and credible primary election in Edo. We will get the best to fly the flag of the party in Edo state.
Q. What are you doing on the issue of threat of your life
ANS: The police has graciously reinforced my security but I don’t want to dwell much on that since it has to do with security.
Q. What message do you have for your party members
ANS: Members of the party should remain committed and steadfast and continue to have faith and confidence in the leadership of the party. We have taken the party from nothing to something and we will ever remain committed to the ideals of labour party.
Q. Why is the party using place holders even when it runs contrary to electoral act.
ANS: With the membership strength of the party, the issue of placeholder in the party is now a thing of the past. In Edo, we have eminently qualified people that vied for the position of the governor. The same goes for Ondo and even in other states where we are going for bye elections, the competition is there. So, we believe that we are no longer going to be in a position where we shall be dealing with the issue of place holder.
We have just finished elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa and you can see that candidates vied for those positions and it is those candidates that emerged that their forms were uploaded. The place holder arrangement is no longer an option that the party will consider.
Q. You granted an interview where you said that if Datti were to be the party’s presidential candidate, there could have been crises in the land. Can you clarify what you meant.
ANS: PO gave us the strength and huge following that joined the party which gave us the momentum that led to the result we had. He is the leader and all instructions flowed from him. We all followed him including the Vice-presidential candidate irrespective of what we may have in our mind.
I was talking about protest, civil disobedience, that was how I put it but I think that it was over exaggerated.
Our Vice presidential candidate is also a law abiding citizen, well respected and very dutiful. I could not have described him as a warlord
Q. What are your plans against those that are defaming your character.
ANS: I have actually sued them, the case is before the court on defamation and even on this case of forgery. There is even a judgement from a high court that gave us judgement on the issue of forgery.
For some of them who are lawyers, we have written petition against them to the legal practitioners disciplinary committee.
In fact, one of those judges in Kano that reflected Alex Otti’s case, when the Judge was delivering that judgement, he insisted that the party should report its former National Legal Adviser to the Legal Practitioners disciplinary committee.