Recognise Omotosho as national chairman, Labour party urges INEC
News & Trends •
by angela atabo2 when the leadership of the party protested to inec in february assistant director on security mr musa sekpa had assured that the issue would be looked into1 forum of states chairmen of the labour party made the call at a news conference on tuesday in abuja at the end of a two-day meeting of the body1 chairman of the group mr joseph ndirang said that omotosho emerged at a special convention of the party in october 2017 replacing alhaji abdulkadir abdulsalam who was removed over allegation of fraud1 he said inec witnessed the convention but had refused to recognise and work with omotosho as the chairman of the party1 ndirang said that the situation had remained so in spite of the partys representations which culminated in a protest to inecs headquarters in abuja in february1 according to him inecs silence on the issue is undermining the partys decision at the 2017 convention which brought in omotosho1 he said that the party was surprised that till date the commission was yet to recognise omotosho1 the meeting observed with dismay the inability of inec as the regulator of the activities of political parties to fully comply and impartially implement the overflowing decision of the highest organ1 the labour partys convention unanimously removed the former chairman abdulkadir abdulsalam and elected omotosho as the new chairman of the party1 the meeting noted that the convention that removed abdulsalam from office was convened in line with the provisions of the partys constitution article 13c and in conformity with the requirements and guidelines of inec1 labour party has decried the refusal of independent national electoral commissioninec to recognise dr mike omotosho as its national chairman and urged the commission to do without further delay1 ndirang added that for avoidance of doubts copies of the nigeria police report and the forensic audit report carried out on the partys financial accounts that indicted abdulsalam was made available1 he expressed the forums displeasure over the continuous illegal self-parade of abdulsalam as national chairman of the party after the national working committee and the convention had removed him from office1 he said that this perpetuation of illegality had misled people into assuming that the party was in a kind of crisis which was not true1 the chairmens forum re-affirms the outcome of the 2017 special convention and also demands that all relevant stakeholders respect and uphold the decisions of the party1 the meeting demands that inec recognizes and only deal henceforth with omotosho as the duly elected national chairman of the party the forum chairman said1 ndirang said that the forum also rejected the clandestine move of a former governor to hijack the party through the back door adding that the governor abandoned the party that made him1 he said that the chairmen also rejected every plan by detractors to drag the party into any unholy coalition for selfish interest1 he said that the party would continue to remain a solid political party with its socialist ideology for the betterment of the nigerians1 when contacted director of voter education and publicity at inec mr oluwole osaze-uzzi said that he had no in-depth knowledge of the crisis in the party1 he promised to check and ascertain what the position of the commission was on the chairmanship issue1 to that extent there should not have been any reason why abdulsalams name is still hoisted on inecs website after inec supervised and monitored the constitutional process that duly removed him he said1