Peter Obi, Alex Otti Do Not Have The Locus To Call A NEC Meeting – LP Chairman

The Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) in Enugu State, Casmir Agbo, has accused the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the governor of Abia State, Alex Otti of hijacking the party.

Speaking during an interview on Enugu’s Dream FM’s ‘Political Voices’, on Monday, the LP stalwart urged Obi and Otti to bring peace to the party by encouraging the warring factions to sheath their swords.

He argued that Obi acted unconstitutionally by calling a meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.

Agbo argued that Peter Obi does not have the authority to call a NWC meeting, insisting that the former Anambra governor is simply an LP member.

According to him, “Who is Mr Peter Obi in LP? We don’t run a banana republic. Obi has no right to assume anything outside of being a member of LP. He has no locus to call an NEC meeting of the LP. Is Obi the national chairman or Otti the secretary? Our constitution says it is only the national chairman who can call an NEC meeting, or the secretary with the approval of the chairman.

“Can former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar call the PDP’s NEC meeting? Obi was in PDP and had problems; why didn’t he call PDP’s NEC meeting?”

On the judgment of the Supreme Court, which stated that the tenure of the Julius Abure-led LP Exco had expired, Agbo said, “The verdict was clear. The apex court said, ‘Go back to your party and determine the party’s leadership. If Abure is leaving, he would first come to a meeting of the NEC and would be asked to go. I don’t know why Obi and Otti are making noise. These are politicians who came begging to join the LP. If they don’t want peace in LP, let them leave.”

He said the hierarchy of LP was not happy with how Obi mismanaged the 2023 presidential election.

Quoting him, “We told him ahead of the election that states had no vehicles and offices. He promised to settle everything, which he never did. During our meeting in Asaba, Obi abandoned us when we told him that we were disappointed in his management of the party. Obi would tell us this and turn around to do another thing.”

On the prospects of LP in Enugu State following the defection of LP stalwarts to PDP, Agbo said those elected on LP’s platform had abandoned the party.

He said, “LP has no office in Enugu State again. The house rent expired. It was last paid by Hon Chijioke Edeoga. Indeed, we lost an Iroko in Edeoga’s defection to the PDP.”