Barrister Julius Abure, the embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party, has warned Senator Seriake Dickson against fully accommodating Peter Obi and his supporters.
In a statement personally signed and issued on Monday, Abure cautioned the leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) that Obi’s political motive is always to conquer and usurp the leadership of any political party that admits them.
He specifically advised Dickson, a former governor of Bayelsa State and a key figure in the NDC, to learn from the Labour Party’s recent trajectory and resist any pressure to hand over all elective positions to Obi’s loyalists.
Abure commended Dickson for reportedly refusing Obi’s request to field only his supporters for elective positions in the NDC, describing the decision as commendable and a necessary check on the vociferous followers of the former Labour Party presidential candidate.
“They say, history usually repeats itself. Senator Dickson and Co have seen their trajectory and learnt from what happened to us, that a lot of them after they have won and now in government turned round and were struggling with the leadership of the party,” Abure stated.
He noted that the NDC leadership appears to have learned valuable lessons from the Labour Party’s experience, which is why they are now collecting what is due to them upfront to have the resources to manage the party.
“I want to say that Obi and his followers are ingrates who will never remember the sacrifices you made for them. It is even dangerous for the leadership of the NDC to wholly hand over the elective positions to Obi and his followers,” Abure warned.
Recounting the Labour Party’s experience during the 2022/23 general election, Abure explained that the party made significant sacrifices trusting that Obi and his supporters would reciprocate the gesture by supporting the party after they formed government.
“We did it in 2022/23, immediately they saw that Obi was interested in the leadership of the party, all those elected under the platform of the party simply followed Obi, forgetting all the sacrifices and suffering we made for them. They went for the structures of the party, from the ward to the national, to be dissolved,” he said.
Abure clarified that his intervention arose from people’s curiosity about how he navigated the 2022/23 general election with the domineering activities of Peter Obi and his supporters without any crisis. He said the party ensured that Obi’s interests were adequately taken care of, with most of his supporters receiving tickets for free.
“We only looked at his body language and we obliged most of his supporters tickets. Most of the tickets were for free believing that we were investing in those persons in line with the philosophy of the party, expecting that when they win, they will bring along necessary supports that will help in the growth of the party,” Abure stated.
“But ironically, when they came into power, they went after the leadership of the party.”
The Labour Party chairman alleged that Obi and Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, decided to take over the leadership of the party after being deceived by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into believing that the tenure of the party’s executive had expired.
“We had expected them to reject that position. Our leaders ought to have known that what was going on was a reprisal from the role the party leadership played in the 2022/23 general election,” he added.
Abure further claimed that all Labour Party members elected to the National Assembly have, to date, made no contributions to the party despite their years in office.
“Therefore for strategic and political reasons, it is very good for Seriake Dickson not to have given Obi supporters all they needed in the NDC. He needed to bring his own people so that when the chips are down, he will also have people that will speak and defend him,” Abure advised.
He warned that any political leader who observes what Obi and his followers did to the Labour Party and still makes the mistake of fully accommodating them would have no one to blame but themselves.
“No leader of any political party seeing what Obi did to Labour Party, along with his followers, will make that mistake again,” Abure concluded.
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