The leadership tussle in the Labour Party (LP) took another dimension on Friday as the faction loyal to the embattled National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, retook possession of the party’s national secretariat at Utako district, Abuja.

The faction, comprising 37 state Chairmen and Abuja, drove to the party’s secretariat at about 5 pm in a Coaster bus to take total possession of the party headquarters.

They were however not allowed to gain access by policemen from Utako Police Station.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command had an hour earlier, deployed its men to the party secretariat.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Utako Police Station Geoffrey Victor who ordered private security men guarding the secretariat to leave, said the police were not partisan but were there to maintain peace.

But the state chairmen told the police officers on the ground that they came to take over their secretariat, before forcing their way into the premises.

Spokesperson of Forum of Chairmen, Chief Rotimi Kehinde who spoke to journalists, described the takeover of the party secretariat on Thursday by the Apapa-led faction as unlawful.

Kehinde who is Kwara State Chairman said the forum “got information that some hoodlums invaded our national secretariat at Utako, destroyed so many properties, carted away documents, and chased our staff away, committed a lot of atrocities that are not in tandem with the law.

“We heard that they went to court to take a particular order but they did not wait for the court to determine the motion on notice, and they took laws into their hands to come and destroy our secretariat.

“That is why we as a very important organ of NEC, the council of Chairmen in the whole country, have decided to come to do an on-the-spot assessment.

“And on getting here, we discovered that this set of people, some of them are suspended and no longer members of the party, some of them have sold the party to other political parties, which the party is still investigating, have violated our rights, as a political party.

“We are saying we cannot be intimidated, we cannot be harassed, that Labour Party has come to stay in Nigeria, and we want to advise all political parties to leave us alone.

“We want to tell security agencies not to be political party members. They should do what is right according to the rule of law. You cannot be a judge in your own case.

“Some of the people causing this problem are being sponsored but Julius Abure remained our Chairman.

“It is only a court of competent jurisdiction and the National Executive Committee that can remove him, and that cannot be done behind closed doors.” (Text, excluding headline: New Telegraph)

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