Mrs. Oluchi Opara, the Labour Party’s suspended national treasurer, said that the party’s decision to punish her for allegedly stealing more than N3 billion from the N3.5 billion earned for the 2023 campaigns was deliberate and in violation of party regulations.
Opara made this statement in response to the Labour Party (LP) national leadership suspending her for six months after she claimed on Monday that Abure had wasted N3 billion of the N3.5 billion that had been raised for the 2023 campaigns.
The party’s leadership said yesterday that N3.5 billion had not been raised for the campaign across all of their accounts.
The national publicity secretary of the party, Mr. Obiora Ifoh, said at a news conference held at the party headquarters that the national treasurer will be put on trial by a disciplinary committee for her allegations.
Following the emergency meeting of the Labour Party’s National Working Committee, the party’s leadership has established a disciplinary committee to investigate allegations made against National Treasurer Oluchi Opara of tarnishing the party’s reputation and misleading the public about its internal operations in violation of party policies.
“The party invited the National Treasurer to appear before it on Wednesday, February 14, 2024 by 10am at the Conference Hall of the Party National Headquarters. The meeting was held Tuesday evening, February 13, 2024 in Abuja, and was chaired by the Deputy National Chairman, Mrs. Ladi Iliya.
Obiora continued, “The party leadership is also urging the party’s teaming members to be patient with it while it also assures that the bad wind will soon be resolved.”
Opara, however, responded to her suspension by claiming that it was intentional and that it didn’t adhere to the party’s established guidelines.
“At 9:25 p.m. on Tuesday, I received an invitation letter, although I don’t live in Abuja. When they sent out the invitation, they took me off the party platform that evening and suspended me at 12 p.m. on Wednesday since I had missed my flight. I was supposed to show up by 10 a.m. on Wednesday. Therefore, what transpired was deliberate, and I’ll stop at nothing to expose the truth,” said Opara.
Recall that Opara made this accusation against Abure at a press conference in Abuja on Monday. She claimed that “he only declared N55 million to me as Treasurer of the over N3.5 billion raised, pocketing the rest for himself,” with the exception of the proceeds from the sale of forms from his home state of Edo, which were diverted to Mr. Abure’s private accounts.