By DADA AYOKHAI
More facts are beginning to emerge on the intractable crisis rocking the Labour Party at the center, so soon after the general elections.
Strangely, the two national officers of the party said to be at the center of the crisis hail from Edo State.
The crisis is centred on two dramatist personae Mr Julius Abure, the embattled national chairman of the party and Comrade Anselm Eragbe, National Youth Leader of the party.
Mr. Julius Abure, the suspended national chairman of the party is currently fighting tooth and nail to retain his seat as the national chairman of the party that made waves in the last general election.
The party’s national chairman, Julius Abure hail from the Edo Central Senatorial district of the state while Comrade Anselm Eragbe hail from Okpekpe axis of Edo North senatorial district.
Eragbe was the party senatorial candidate for Edo north district during the last national assembly elections and also doubled as the National Youth Leader of the party.
Sources privy to the raging crisis which seems to have pitched the two national officers of the party at war told our political reporter that the genesis of the “cold war” between the duo was a pre-election disagreement that only surfaced after the general elections.
The disagreement according to the source was the series of move by the National chairman Abure to supplant the office of the National Youth Leader with the party deputy national secretary.
He alleged that as a result of the chairman’s plans, comrade Eragbe cried out but his voice was easily drowned by the forces loyal to the national chairman.
“In a bid to reclaim his position, Eragbe issued several press statements and also authored a petition to the police in which he accused the Abure leadership of making clandestine attempts to suspend him.
“He also claimed that one Ahanotu was impersonating his person as well as his office”,he alleged.
The source further alleged that on loses the senatorial election, an aggrieved Comrade Eragbe saw an opportunity to hit back at those who eased him out of office especially the national chairman, Abure.
Our political reporter, gathered that Eragbe was a core member of the aggrieved members of the party that dragged the now embattled national chairman of the party to the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The aggrieved members obtained an exparte injunction restraining Mr Abure from parading himself as the Labour Party national chairman based on the allegations of forgery.
The members went as far as involving the police to secure the national secretariat of the party as well as forcing Abure to vacate office.
The court case initiated by the Comrade Eragbe group also led to the suspension of Abure and other national officers, while the aggrieved members moved quickly to quash an earlier suspension slammed on Comrade Eragbe as the national youth leader of the party.
The labour party supporters in the state are stunned at the raging hostility between the two national officers who have suddenly become foes tearing each other to pieces when they are expected to be working together as a team having toiled day and night to bring the Labour Party from obscurity to prominence.
