In continuation of the crises and power play in Labour Party, Chairpersons of the party across 36 states of Nigeria on Friday stormed the Abuja national secretariat of the party which had allegedly been taken over by thugs a day earlier.

The take over of the party followed the sack of Julius Abure as the party chairman by court.

His deputy, Lamidi Apapa had consequently announced that he is taking over the leadership of the party as the Acting Chairman during an emergency meeting of the LP National Working Committee (NWC) held last Thursday.

He announced Saleh Lawan is the Acting National Secretary of the party while insisting that Abure and the three others must vacate the order of the Federal High Court retraining them before further action can be taken on the leadership of the party.

Consequently, the faction with the aid of some policemen had gone to take over the secretariat of Labour Party in Abuja on Friday.

However, chairmen of the party across the 36 states met in Benin city, Edo State, on Thursday and affirmed that Abure remained the chairman of the party.

In a follow up to the declaration, they stormed Abuja to take over the party’s secretariat which they alleged was taken over by thugs on April 6.

They also insisted that they did not sack Abure as Chairman of the party.

According to them, Abure remains the recognised National Chairman of LP.

Mr Ogbaloi Kelly, Chairman, Edo State LP, said that the National Working Committee (NWC) is a subordinate organ to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

“Therefore, when a faction of it is comes to take laws into its hands, it becomes a total nullity.

“Those who are taking this action are members of the party who have since been suspended, and as at the time they took this action, their suspension had not been lifted.

Kelly said that even the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) affirmed Abure as the chairman in their communique .

“We have come here to tell the world that the action of this faction is a total nullity and should be disregarded because the action does not follow the content of the rules and constitution of the Labour Party.”

Mr Cashmir Agbo, Chairman, Enugu State Labour Party, said that there was the need for party members to be guided by the rules and laws of the Constitutional provisions and the laws of the land and the party.

“The position of the party and the mechanism in the resolution of crises are very clear. In the constitution, you have to exhaust that mechanism in court.

“You go to court and obtain a court order and you want to enforce that order by yourself.

“What am saying in effect is this that they mixed criminality with civil process and the court that gave them that order endangered law.”

Agbo blamed the crisis on those that do not want LP to challenge the presidential election in court, adding “we are challenging the outcome of INEC’s result, they should allow the court process to finish.

“What they are doing is to enforce their will and distract and force labour party nationwide to withdraw the case in court.”

Agbo said that Abure remains the authentic Chairman of Labour Party in Nigeria and there was no body except the National Executive Committee that could remove him.”

With reports from NAN