Anietie Udobit, Abuja
The 2023 vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said that he has informed his principal, Peter Obi, of his decision to attend the National Executive Committee meeting led by Julius Abure as part of efforts to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.
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Baba-Ahmed, who spoke when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, described himself as a peacemaker on a peace mission.
He explained, “Labour Party is not a party to walk away from, not a party to be abandoned or to be ignored.
“I assure you that every little step I take, concerned parties are aware; I don’t need to get too much into our internal operation, but give you a categorical answer — everyone that has to do with everything that I do is aware.
“I call for parties to get together and talk; that’s the way forward. When the parties meet, journalists will get the headlines of what was discussed. I’m a positive catalyst in this case. I’m bringing people together to unite, understand themselves, and make good efforts again to rescue Nigeria.”
He said the Labour Party, like other parties, had been a victim of the captors of the Nigerian state, hence the need for leaders of the party to rise to the occasion and unite it.
On the statement by the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Yunusa Tanko, that Obi’s supporters were not aware of the meeting with the Abure-led group, Baba-Ahmed said, “I don’t talk to Mr. Tanko, I relate with our boss, His Excellency Peter Obi, and I did.
“His Excellency Peter Obi is aware. He probably has been too busy to update the Tankos around him. I speak with the boss, not with those who move around with him, and I’m happy to still have the Tankos around; they are loyal, they are active. Peter Obi is aware, please.”
The party has been embroiled in an internal leadership crisis, which has divided it into factions.
However, many leaders of the party, including Obi and the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, identify with the group led by Nenadi Usman, who was elected as the Interim National Chairman last Friday.
Also elected was Senator Darlington Nwokocha as the Interim National Secretary, among others, as members of the party’s interim working committee.
But the National Youth Leader of the LP, Kennedy Ahanotu, said the appointment of a new interim committee led by Senator Usman was unconstitutional and illegal, insisting that the party’s leadership remains under Abure.
The Supreme Court had, in April, set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja recognising Abure as the national chairman of the party.
In a unanimous judgment, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have pronounced Abure as National Chairman of the Labour Party, after finding out earlier that the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.
The apex court held that the issue of leadership was an internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction.
The court further allowed the appeal filed by Senator Nenadi Usman and one other and held that it was meritorious.