Julius Abure, factional national chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has advised Senator Seriake Dickson, national leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), to be cautious in his alliance with Peter Obi and his supporters, warning that the party could face challenges similar to those experienced by the LP after the 2023 general election.
Abure gave the warning in a statement personally signed on Monday, following Obi’s emergence as the NDC presidential candidate after being ratified at the party’s national convention in Abuja on May 30.
The LP chieftain said Dickson appeared to have learnt from the internal crisis that rocked the Labour Party, praising the NDC leader’s reported decision not to hand over all elective positions in the party to Obi’s supporters.
“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,” Abure said.
“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.”
Abure alleged that many politicians elected on the LP platform in 2023, including Obi and Abia State Governor Alex Otti, later turned against the party leadership.
According to him, the LP accommodated Obi’s interests ahead of the 2023 elections by granting several tickets to his supporters, many of them at no cost.
“We ensured that Obi’s interests were adequately taken care of. We only looked at his body language, and we obliged most of his supporters’ tickets,” he said.
“Most of the tickets were for free believing that we were investing in those persons in line with the philosophy of the party.”
The former LP chairman further claimed that the party’s crisis deepened after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acted on a court ruling that the tenure of the party’s executives had expired, leading to the emergence of the Nenadi Usman-led interim national committee.
“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,” he said.
Abure argued that Dickson should ensure that his own loyalists occupy strategic positions within the NDC to safeguard the party’s leadership structure.
“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,” he stated.
He also accused Obi’s supporters of joining the NDC with the intention of dominating the party structure.
“They trooped into NDC with Obi hoping to occupy every space like they did in the Labour Party. No leader of any political party seeing what Obi did to the Labour Party, along with his followers, will make that mistake again,” Abure said.
