Opposition continues to mount over the emergence of Callistus Okafor as the new factional National Chairman of the Labour Party.
In two separate interviews, the National Secretary of the party, Umar Farouk, and the Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, disowned the factional leader.
While attention has focused on the rift between the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee and the 29-man caretaker committee headed by former minister Nenadi Usman over the past two weeks, Okafor seized the opportunity to announce his arrival.
Okafor, a former deputy national chairman of the LP, told journalists at a press conference in Abuja the previous Friday that he was the party’s rightful leader.
The factional chairman stated that his decision to ‘take over’ the administration of the party from Abure was backed by a 2018 consent judgment of the Federal High Court, which he claimed had been ignored.
He explained that the consent judgment was issued following the leadership tussle between the late LP national chairman, Abdulkadir Salam, and another faction led by Salisu Mohammed, who also declared himself national caretaker chairman at that time.
Okafor argued that, due to non-compliance with the court order, the Abure-led NWC exploited and built on a faulty structure to become the national chairman.
Reacting to the development, Farouk dismissed Okafor’s explanation, saying he was merely capitalizing on the current crisis within the party leadership.
The LP national secretary also blamed Abia State Governor Alex Otti for the internal strife that is gradually leading to factions within the party.
He said, “Okafor’s claim to be the legitimate national chairman of the party shouldn’t come as a surprise. It is not new to us. If Governor Otti can wake up one day and decide to illegitimately form a caretaker committee, Tom, Dick, and Harry can equally claim to be the leader of the Labour Party. That is the danger of what they have done.
“I believe you know the NLC has also created one they call ‘National Transition Committee.’ But in the end, it will be the court that determines the true leaders and legal officers of the party. Until then, Okafor is free to make noise all over the place.”
The NLC camp also regarded Okafor’s claim to the party leadership as a joke.
According to Prof. Ndubuaku, Nigerians are already aware of where the commitments of Otti, LP presidential candidate Peter Obi, and the stakeholders lie.
“People can have as many factional chairmen as they want, but the question here is that when you have Peter Obi as the leader of the LP, Otti as the only governor of the party, senators and members of the House of Representatives elected on our platform, House of Assembly members, as well as the statutory members – TUC and NLC – together with us, who will Okafor claim to be working with?
“We are not even talking about the loyalty of virtually all the party stakeholders yet. So, I ask again: Who are the members of Okafor’s faction and what are they bringing to the table?
“So, I think Okafor just wants to be in the news. He is just trying to get some relevance,” he stated.
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