Dayo Ekong, chairman of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State, in this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, spoke on the crisis rocking the party at the national level since after the 2023 general election. She spoke on moves by the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee to replace Julius Abure as the national chairman of the party. Ekong stated that attempts to hijack the party in Lagos by suspending her would fail, while alleging that the two years administration of President Bola Tinubu was a failure because the economy. Excerpts:
What is your take on the development in the party, especially the appointment of the caretaker committee in Lagos?
There is no problem in the party; whatever Nenadi Usman who is not a member of the party is doing is not recognised. The trust of the member is that there was a judgment on the matter in the Supreme Court last month and people are so ignorant that at the end of the judgment, the reason why the Supreme Court said they would not pronounced Julius Abure, the chairman is because; it is nobody’s responsibility, whether the lower court or the Appeal Court to pronounce anybody the chairman of a party.
So, it is presumed any conflict in a political party is an internal affair that should be resolved internally.
If you remember when the present president had issues in his party, there was affirmation that political party issues should be resolved internally. We have a national chairman that was duly elected, because the deputy governor of Abia State came to that convention that was held in Nnewi, Anambra State. He was sent by Governor Otti to chair that convention and raised up the hand of the national chairman.
All of a sudden for selfish interest, they are bringing up somebody who is not even a member of the LP as the national chairman, because we are from the east and someone is from the North. What does that have to do with political party affairs when we have a duly elected chairman?
They are the leaders of the party, if there is going to be anything it is the responsibility of the national working committee.
According to the constitution of the party Abure can’t be removed except through congress. They are saying they are removing the person who welcomed them to the party, are they not jokers. They are making caricatures of themselves. For the imposters to put themselves together and say they are the caretaker members of LP in Lagos State, it is an aberration.
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The complaint among stakeholders is that the convention in Anambra was not inclusive?
Were House of Representatives members and senators there? Before people say it was not inclusive it is important that we understand how a political party is structured. Look before people say it was not inclusive; it is important that we understand how political parties’ structure. The labour party has a constitution and you can’t use the APC or PDP’s constitution to run the Labour Party. The constitution requirement was met in the conduct of the convention.
Nobody has gone to court because of that convention they should go and verify, all the cases they have had so far is not about the convention, it is about how they would remove Abure.
Most of them are not LP members, recently it was reported that she joined SDP, she is jumping up and down. What is happening in Lagos is a distraction, because of the local government election coming up, what they want to do is to hijack the election.
The normal thing they used to do was to transact with the aspirants to extol them, but they know with me here, that is not possible, everything has to be done with the required guidelines of LP and LASEIC.
In the judgment, the Supreme Court said Abure had expired. Don’t you agree?
Go to the INEC portal whose name is there? How come INEC has not removed the Abure’s name from their portal?
Are you not bothered that with this crisis, the gains achieved in the 2023 general election would be eroded?
Back then in 2023 we had one man called Shokunbi, who was going round saying he was the chairman of LP in Lagos. There were factions, but we kept quiet and kept on doing our work, we knew that it was a distraction, but remained. So, what we are saying is that, we would not allow this kind of distraction to affect us, because we know they are doing the bidding of their pay masters. We were able to succeed because we stayed in line and refused to be distracted by these people and that is why INEC has not changed the name for now. What the Supreme Court said was that nobody has a right to interfere in the affairs of any political party.
Let them go back to the constitution of the party and leaders of the party, when you talk about a leader of the party, it is Abure, any other person is wasting his time.
But they said Abure was working for APC and was an impostor. How do you react?
She too is an imposter; they are attacking that man for nothing. They said he was not a good man, but he was a good man when he gave them the ticket and platform. The moment people leave grace, where God has put them, it is finished. There is grace on top of the Labour Party.
What is the way out of the crisis?
The fact is that Abure’s tenure had not expired. A lot of people are ignorant that Abdulsalam the former chairman died, the remaining two years of his tenure was what Abure used initially. The constitution allows for two terms, officially he went to congress and was elected. If you look at it, it is his first tenure that is this one, he only completed the last chairman tenure.
This same Abure was given a billion for Otti not to contest for governor in Abia State so that he would not challenge, but he rejected the money. Ask Otti how much did he give Abure or pay into the party account for his candidacy.
He did not pay money. It was only Peter Obi that I learned paid N60 million for his presidential ticket.
I’m a Yoruba lady, i believe even when there is contention about issues, when people do good for you, you don’t bite the finger that feeds you. There are ways you can resolve issues without destroying the party and platform that gave you that opportunity. Otti was in APC, he did not get the ticket, he came to the Labour Party and got the ticket. You don’t use your power to suppress other people.
Many leaders have dumped the party ahead 2027 over this crisis. Are you not worried?
Someone like Ozigbo in Anambra wanted to go to APC, what about other politicians that are defecting to the APC. For the people leaving, have you asked Abure if he has not tried for them to have dialogue? All the 36 chairmen and their secretaries, even from the SEC and NWC are solidly behind Abure. For one reason, I have never seen anybody as magnanimous as Abure. He gives people their respect. All these issues you keep hearing about him; when they investigate, you would be hearing about the falsehood.
How are you building the party in Lagos State?
We are trying our best to reach out to people, however, no matter what you do because some people are on a mission, they will always want to destroy you.
But I can tell you that we are solid in Lagos and LP in Lagos is the envy of other political parties, because daily you see influx of people and politicians into the party and it is alarming.
Forget what you hear, if you had come here yesterday you would have seen the number of people willing to join the party.
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The council election is here in Lagos, how is the party preparing?
We are not going to allow any distraction, we will stay focused on our mission and the mission is to win and to make an impact. I mean to clear whatever is for us to clear, because our candidates are determined to clear the election. We are here for serious business.
President Tinubu will be two years in office on May 29; how do you assess his administration?
There is hunger in the land, has things gotten better? Until we have leaders who would not go abroad for medical attention. Until we have leaders who can eat our food here. Until we have leaders that would show concern for our citizens.
Food is expensive, they came with so much promise, but they now know that you should work the talk instead.
What is your take on the wave of defections to the ruling party?
We are dealing with politicians who have no integrity and credibility. We are dealing with politicians that don’t align with the ideology of their parties.
We are dealing with selfish individuals, that all they think of is not the country, but themselves. The defection into the APC is because they are not credible and are working for what they can get.
