Labour Party crisis deepens as national vice chairman, secretary arrested in Abia
The southeast national vice chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Comrade Ceekay Igara, has been arrested, along with Prince G.O. Nwabueze, who was later identified as the Secretary of the State Working Committee of the party.
According to reports, Igara and Nwabueze were apprehended in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), a division of the Abia State Police Command, with their base located at the Aba North Local Government Area headquarters.
Comrade Igara, a former LP State Chairman in Abia, is a loyal member of the faction supporting the embattled National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure.
The arrest took place during a stakeholders’ meeting at a hotel owned by a Labour Party House of Representatives candidate for Aba North and South Federal Constituency.
The meeting was being held on Margaret Avenue, off PZ Junction in Aba North, when armed and masked RRS officers stormed the venue and took both Igara and the State Working Committee Secretary of his faction into custody.
Our correspondent gathered that the Labour Party’s national vice chairman was taken to Umuahia and detained in the custody of the State Criminal and Investigation Department (SCID) in Umuahia, the state capital, while the state secretary was released.
Addressing members of the party after his release, Nwabueze who spoke in Aba said that they were able to discover that the national vice chairman was detained at the facility of the SCID.
He went further to accuse the state government of being behind the arrest of Igara.
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He accused the governor of the state, Dr. Alex Otti of attempting to hijack the structure of the party in the state.
Nwabueze, who accused the governor of handpicking candidates for the upcoming local government election, vowed that they would resist attempts to impose candidates on members of the party.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the NPF, Abia Command, Maureen Chinaka confirmed the arrest of Igara and three others whose names were not given for alleged impersonation, obtaining by false pretense, and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace in the state, adding that, he was also released the same day; Saturday.
“The Abia State Police Command received a written petition from the Labour Party’s Acting State Chairman against Mr. Ceekey Igara and three others for alleged impersonation, obtaining by pretense, and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.
“Yesterday, 19/10/2024, detectives from the Command invited Mr. Igara, to the Command Headquarters, took his statement, and released him the same day. An investigation is ongoing.”
In a statement, the leadership of LP loyal to the Nnenadi Usman-led faction Hon. Emmanuel Nweze Oti Ag. State Chairman, Labour Party read “Mr. Igara’s arrest stems from a petition we wrote to the Police against him and others over their acts of Extortion and Impersonation of the state Chapter of the Party.
“That Mr. Igara, by the Constitution of our party has no legal right to usurp or impersonate the office of the State Chairman, having ceased to be the state chairman after he was elected the South East National Vice Chairman in March this year.
“That no law court has invalidated the existence or activities of the Acting State Chairman Mr. Emmanuel Oti and his Executive members, hence it was wrong and illegal for Mr. Igara to impersonate the Chairman and his executive by carrying out their legally recognised functions without their consent or approval.
“That we are aware that following the petition, he had been invited by the police which he refused to honour.
“That while we recognise and respect the judgment which recognised Barr. Julius Abure as the national chairman of Abure’s faction which Igara is part of has no right to flagrantly ignore the appeal and the motion for a stay of execution that had been duly filed against them, by purportedly dissolving and imposing a new Caretaker leadership on the Abia State Chapter, against the provisions of the law and the Constitution of our party.
“Again, the Abia State Chapter of Labour Party had gone further to secure a validly issued order of court which restrains Abure, Igara, and others from those activities which prompted our petition to the Police.
“If we could recognise and respect the judgment of the court on Abure, we do not see any reason why Abure and Igara should ignore the Appeal and Motion for a Stay of Execution filed in the same court. Why should Abure and Igara choose the court orders to obey or ignore?
“Finally, we wish to emphatically state that the State Chapter of the Labour Party is peaceful and law-abiding, hence every single action we have taken, including our petition to the Police against Igara which led to his arrest, has been in line with the provisions of the law, therefore those trying to pander to emotions by blackmailing the Abia State Government over his arrest are either ignorant of the facts, or are doing so for selfish political reasons, and should be ignored by the public.”
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