There is no end in sight to the crisis rocking the Edo State chapter of the Labour Party, as suspension and counter-suspension continue to characterise the party ahead of the September 21, 2024, governorship election
DAILY POST reports that the leadership of the party in the state ratified the alleged suspension of the party national chairman, Julius Abure, by the executive of Ward 3, Arue-Uromi, in Esan North-East Local Government Area on Friday, May 24, 2024.
Abure was suspended for alleged anti-party activities.
Barely 72 hours after the suspension, Julius Abure dissolved the Kelly Ogbaloi-led State Working Committee and replaced it with a 17-man caretaker committee led by Elizabeth Ativie, the former speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly.
The development, however, polarised the party, creating a gulf between the factions of Julius Abure and Olumide Akpata, the governorship candidate of the party.
As the crisis continued unabated, the Kelly Ogbaloi-led faction on Saturday suspended Elizabeth Ativie from the party over alleged gross misconduct and insubordination.
Ativie’s suspension was taken at an enlarged meeting of the State Working Committee (SWC), which was attended by local government chairmen and secretaries of the party.
Aghedo Sunny Okhiongbamwonyi, the Uhunmwonde Local Government chairman of the party, read the suspension of Ativie by her ward.
Okhiongbamwonyi said the former speaker of the State House of Assembly was suspended by Ward 4, on May 4, 2024, for gross anti-party activities and insubordination.
He said the suspension letter was signed by the ward chairman, Charles Usiesefe and secretary, Mike Ighile.
He said the suspension had an immediate effect.
He said the embattled factional chairman was advised to restrain from holding out or parading herself as a member of the party in the ward.
Okhiongbamwonyi added that the suspension was ratified by the local government executives of the party on May 30, 2024.
He explained that the local government executive found all the grounds leading to her suspension to be incontrovertible and, therefore, ratified the suspension.
Acting on the local government executive’s ratification of the suspension, the State Working Committee of the party also ratified the suspension of the factional chairman from the party.
Responding, Ativie said she remains the authentic state chairman of the party and was not aware of any meeting suspending her.
“They should know that, by the constitution of the Labour Party, no ward or local government chairman has the authority to suspend anybody or the chairman. It is dead on arrival, I am the current state Labour chairman in Edo State,” she said.
Edo: Labour Party suspends factional state chairperson Ativie