The Factional National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure, has warned the Senator Seriake Dickson-led leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding their alliance with Peter Obi.
He described the former Anambra State governor and his followers as ravenous, stating that their political goal is always to conquer and seize the leadership of any political party that takes them in.
Abure, who pointed out that Senator Dickson must have learned from what happened to the Labour Party, praised the former Bayelsa State governor for refusing Obi’s request to give all elective positions to his followers.
He noted that this move was a good way to restrain the loud supporters of the former Labour Party presidential candidate.
In a statement, Abure explained that Obi, Abia State Governor Dr. Alex Otti, and most of their supporters won elections under the Labour Party’s free-ticket policy.
However, instead of working with the leadership to build the party, they turned around to fight for its control, thereby destroying what was once Nigeria’s biggest opposition party.
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“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. So, having leant from that, that is probably why the NDC leadership are collecting what they ought to collect upfront so that they can 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. 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.
“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.
“All those elected under the party, Obi took them to fight the leadership of the party. So why will Seriake Dickson and Co allow Obi to produce all the elected officers or meet all the interests of Obi, it must be balanced. They trooped into NDC with Obi hoping to occupy every space like they did in Labour Party. No leader of any political party seeing what Obi did to Labour Party, along with his followers will make that mistake again.”
Abure made it clear that he spoke out because people have been curious about how he managed to handle the 2022/2023 general elections alongside the overbearing activities of Peter Obi and his followers without a crisis.
He explained that the Labour Party made a lot of sacrifices, trusting that the newcomers would return the favor by backing the party after getting into government.
He stated that they made sure Obi’s interests were fully handled by reading his body language and giving tickets to most of his supporters.
Many of those tickets were given out for free because the party believed it was investing in people who would help grow the platform after winning. Instead, after gaining power, they targeted the party’s leadership.
“They fell into the trap of INEC, when the commission deceived them to say that the tenure of the executive has 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.
“The leaders, particularly, Peter Obi and Alex Otti decided to take over the leadership of the party. In any event, all those that we elected as we speak, up till now, all the years they have spent in the National Assembly did not make any contribution to the party, therefore people like Seriake Dickson and the leaders of the NDC are probably learning from what happened to the Labour Party.”
