The camp of the Labour Party chairman, Julius Abure, has stated that it would be silly to hand over the affairs of the party to former Minister of Finance, Nenadi Usman, as she is not a member of the party.
The National Publicity Secretary of the LP Obiora Ifoh, stated this during an interview with Punch.
Usman’s party membership was questioned after the Abure-led National Working Committee suspended her alongside Abia State Governor, Alex Otti; the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Ireti Kingibe; the caretaker secretary, Senator Darlington Nwokocha; and lawmakers Victor Ogene, Amobi Ogah, and Seyi Sowumi for alleged anti-party activities.
Ifoh, while speaking to the aforementioned publication, argued that it would be ‘silly’ and a complete violation of the party constitution to hand over the affairs of LP to an outsider who is not even a ‘card-carrying member.’
Ifoh, described Usman as an impostor who is conniving with their detractors to trade the party.
He said, “Anybody can claim anything. That woman (Usman) came in as an Obidient member working for Peter Obi. She actually headed PO’s campaign in Kaduna.
“Of course, you know PO did not use Labour Party members. He used his Obidient movement to form his presidential campaign team. That was where we started having problems with him because he didn’t think we should be part of it. So, this woman came and joined Obi. But she felt too big to go and register in her ward. I can confirm this because her ward register is still with us.
“In the compendium of every member of the party with INEC, her name is not there. Even in the electronic copy, her name is not there. We also did a revalidation exercise, but she didn’t participate in it. That you called a meeting to share money during the campaign and share incentives does not connote that you have registered and got a membership card.”
However, Usman denied the allegations, insisting she was fully registered in her ward and was even issued a membership card.
She said, “I am a member of the Labour Party from Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State. My ward is Jere South, and the name of my chairman is Shehu. Incidentally, most of the membership cards being distributed to people there—I paid for them to be printed. I paid Clement Ojukwu to print them for me, and I took them after they were completed.
“At that time, nobody told me, ‘We don’t want you in LP’ or ‘Don’t print cards.’ After I joined the Labour Party, I called other people to come and join too. If people from my ward don’t disown me, I don’t think anyone here in Abuja can disown me.”