Onyekachi Eze 
The Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, said there was no victor or vanquished in the change of leadership of the party after the stakeholders’ meeting in Umuahi.
The meeting sacked the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) and set up a 29-member National Caretaker Committee with Senator Usman as Chairman.
But at an inaugural meeting in Abuja, Senator Usman said the action was taken to save the Labour Party from the sword of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “which would have otherwise taken our beloved party out of its books for having no legally acceptable leadership that meets the requirements of our country’s Electoral Act.”
She stated that the commission would have no alternative “but to deregister our party from their portals and exclude us from all elections.
“That course of action was successfully averted on September 4 at Umuahia.”
The former Finance Minister appealed to members of the party to unite and make the Labour Party a formidable and indomitable elections-winning party nationwide.
“This is a tall, demanding order. But it is achievable if we submit to the spirit of forgiveness of the wrongs of the past by all sides, reinforce the values of our party’s founding fathers and bond diligently as one family on a voyage together into the future,” she added.
She pledged equal opportunity, fairness and justice to every member, irrespective of social status, tribe, religion and gender, as enshrined in the party’s motto.
Senator Usman stated “On September 4 at Umuahia, the capital of Abia State, no team, group or divide of our party’s various episodes of conflict was vanquished. Everyone won. Therefore, no group or divide should feel any sense of shame or defeat.”
According to her, every faction should not only sheathe its swords but totally get rid of them and work for the success of the party in 2027, which said, is only 30 months away.
She expressed the willingness to accommodate every group that is ready to accept the olive branch of peace, adding, “No matter how long it takes, those who keep faith, reason together, fight together from the trenches as a band of brothers and soldiers of freedom are bound to win together as victors of liberty.”
