The National legal Adviser of Labour party, Kehinde Edun has said neither the national chairman of the labour party, Julius Abure nor any other official of the party has ever been charged with forgery.
Edun said this while reacting to the call for prosecution of the chairman by the party’s governorship candidate for Ebonyi State, Splendour Eze; Edo House of Representatives candidate, Murphy Imasuen and Plateau State governorship candidate, Yohana Mangif on the allegation of forgery.
The lawyer, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, said the allegations were ‘baseless and Unfounded’
“There is not any forgery anywhere. Abure has never been charged to court, no officer of the party has been charged to court for forgery. So, all those allegations are baseless and unfounded and investigations have been conducted and it has been found that there is no merit to those allegations.”
Edun also refuted the claims that the party received FX from outside the country, adding that the laws do not permit such an act.
“Firstly, a political party cannot receive funds from abroad. By the laws of Nigeria, it is not permitted and if you look at the jurisprudence behind it, it is that a foreign government or organization will now be controlling the political affairs of Nigeria.
“So, it is clear in our laws that we cannot receive money from abroad. In case, someone wants to give money from abroad, it has to come through INEC. So, if there is any money that the labour party received, they should go through INEC to find out.”
Meanwhile, on his part, the Labour party national youth leader, Kennedy Ahanotu, who spoke on the arrest of the national chairman, said there was definitely a political undertone to the arrest which was to disrupt the party’s election primaries.
“Why anybody would believe that there is a political undertone is because, why arrest a national chairman of a political party, two days to the party primaries? They felt that holding Abure would destroy the primaries but the labour party is an institution. They held Abure, they held the state chairman and my state youth leader in that arrest and they felt that it would disrupt the primary election of the party.
“This even happened the day we were returning from our delegate election because that was the major thing. When we had a very clean and successful delegate election, the primary was seamless. As a citizen that is known to you, is it not easy and simple to write him a letter, saying come to the police? I am happy that many Nigerians of goodwill have condemned it.
“The political undertone has been there since after our election. There has been one fight or the other instigated by people that do not want the labour party to stand.”
Following the recent emergence of a third governorship candidate of the party on Sunday, Ahanotu emphatically stated that Olumide Akpata is the only recognized labour party governorship candidate.
“Labour party had just one primary, seamless and well televised primary in Edo state that produced our guy. No matter how anybody looks at it, Olumide Akpata is the labour party’s beautiful bride and we are going to win the election with Olumide Akpata. So, for the media to now come and listen to anybody that says he is the candidate, can somebody come and say he is the president of Nigeria? Is it not laughable? There are processes to undergo to become a president, likewise, there are processes to undergo to become a party candidate.
“As of today, we have Olumide Akpata, former NBA Chairman as our governorship candidate. No matter what people have done before the primary, the moment it is done, the party becomes one and today, the party is one and we stand with Olumide Akpata.”
Chioma Kalu
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