BY PATRICK MGBODO
Labour Party Chairman, Julius Abure, has asked the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, to recognise him as the authentic leader of the party.
This was contained in a congratulatory letter to the new INEC Chairman, which was signed by Mr Abure and posted on X (formerly Twitter).
According to the letter, ‘’May I, on behalf of the leadership and members of the Labour Party, congratulate you on your well-deserved appointment as the Chairman of INEC.
‘’Your appointment and elevation by President Bola Tinubu is one that most Nigerians looked forward to, having followed your trajectory as a profound scholar, a legal luminary, a cerebral teacher and imparter of knowledge, an administrator of repute and a deeply religious person.
‘’I joined millions of Nigerians a few days ago, glued to our television on the day of your screening, while you exhibited your mastery of the task ahead, while also holding the entire Senate spellbound with your intellectual prowess on how to navigate the bedevilling and intractable challenges of election management in Nigeria, albeit with ease.
‘’I must say that you came prepared to face the challenges and to help secure our fragile democracy. Nigeria craves for an umpire who is apolitical and whose past has testimonies of love for the nation. ‘’Nigerians need a strong-willed umpire who will place the nation first and who will not succumb to cheap blackmail and little tricks by the politicians who will stop at nothing in pursuit of both their ordinate and inordinate cravings.
I want to say that you earned your current status and that President Tinubu’s choice and fate in you is not in any way misplaced. ‘’Let me at this juncture appreciate the immediate past acting Chairman of the commission for choosing to right the very many wrongs of the past leadership of INEC and for swiftly remedying the glaring infractions perpetuated against the Labour Party.
‘’I do not want to burden you with our challenges, as this letter is purely congratulatory. However, I want to use this opportunity to remind you of a pending order of the Court binding on INEC to recognise the present leadership of the Labour Party as led by my humble self, Barrister Julius Abure, but which, for reasons known to the immediate past INEC leadership, was disregarded but for which we are grateful that the Acting Chairman has remediated substantially.
‘’We are, however, appealing to you to fully comply with several orders and judgments of the courts by directing the inclusion of the Labour Party in the upcoming FCT council election by uploading the names of the party candidates.
‘’As a worker in the temple of justice and one known to have always respected the rule of law, we urge you to revisit this anomaly and restore recognition to the current leadership of the Labour Party, as led by my humble self.
‘’This is because the judiciary, of which you are a prominent member, has spoken loudly and clearly on both the position of the law on the political party leadership and the party supremacy.
