A STAKEHOLDERS meeting of the Labour Party (LP) held in Umuahia, on Wednesday, September 4, at the instance of Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, has named a former minister of Finance and senator representative of Kaduna South between 2011 and 2015, Mrs. Esther Nenadi Usman, as Chairman of its Caretaker Committee, which is charged with rescuing the party from its current leadership crisis.
Usman’s appointment was announced during the meeting, backed by majority of stakeholders, comprising elected representatives and the party’s presidential candidate in last year’s general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, and his running mate, Dr. Baba Datti Ahmed.
Usman leads the 29-member committee tasked with reorganising the party and setting it on a path to electoral success within 90 days, including organising a convention to elect new officers from the ward to the national stage.
Immediate past Senate Minority Deputy Leader, Senator Darlington Nwokocha, from Abia Central, would serve as Secretary of the committee.
The meeting, which was hosted by Otti, was attended by top party officials, including Obi, Datti-Ahmed, Senator Victor Umeh and the party’s Lagos State governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, among others.
With this development, the fate of the Julius Abure-led national leadership of the party hangs in the balance, especially as his tenure had allegedly expired and the the purported national convention on March 27, 2024, that re-elected him in Nnewi, Anambra State, was not monitored or recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), nor the interim leadership set up by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the registered founders/owners of the party.
