1 week Ago By Chibuike Chukwu
Mr. Ceekay Igara, the National Vice Chairman (South East) of the Labour Party, in this interview with CHIBUIKE CHUKWU , explains the genesis of his current face-off with Governor Alex Otti of Abia State. He also speaks of the leadership issues within the party, the reported Peter Obi, Kwanakwasi, Atiku alliance, recent local government election in Abia State and how Governor Ottiallegedly undermined the electoral process.
Excerpts As the National Vice Chairman (South East) of the Labour Party, what really is the issue you have with your state governor, Alex Otti, who is also of the Labour Party? I don’t have any issue with anybody and I don’t think I will have any issue. We have been on the party before some of them came and we have been funding the party before now. We started with the Labour Party from zero to where it is now before some of them even thought of coming to joined us.
So as they joined, what I thought they should have done is to join hands with us and build the party from where they met it instead of coming in to drive away every person. That was the beginning of the red flag when they came in. As that was the case, when we eventually won election (Abia State), none of us as party members was consulted in all the appointments; from the transition to everything.
In fact in everything, the party was not consulted. To them, the party was only good to do campaign, only good to do election, only good to go to the tribunal and get the results validated. That was how the party was discarded and that was the genesis of all these apprehensions.
Initially, we the leaders of the party were always telling our members to calm down that the government just came on board and may be they want to do few things before they carry everyone along. There were some days I brought proposals on how to move the party and the state forward; I went to the governor with those proposals and he would look at them and turn them down. Some of the proposals have to do with how the party could be supported but as they were not approved, we kept quiet.
That was the issue but what broke the carmel’s backwas when the governor called for expanded stakeholders’ meeting and he announced that he had dissolved all strata of governance in the party. This was coming when we had read the constitution of the party severally and we had also understood how political party operations happen in Nigeria. So we let him know that he was elected to govern Abia and not as elected chairman of the party.
If you read the first schedule of our party’s constitution, it says the national chairman should show leadership and in showing leadership, he has to give clear-cut direction of what the party should be. We interpreted this to the governor. I recall the day we received the two House of Assembly members that joined the Labour Party and in that occasion, something told me to remind the governor that nominations are given by the party and not by the governor as some people were flying his name here and there that he would give them nomination to run for chairmanship or whatever; I told the governor to remind them that it is the party that gives nomination considering what Article 18 and 23 of our party say.
I said it and I knew he heard me but only for him to send people to be appointed as local government chairmen. I said no! It was wrong because we came through a democratic process and because of that, we should promote transparency and integrity in every process. When he did that, I reported back to the national leadership of the party and we agreed that we cannot allow that to happen because we want people to trust us.
We said he should open up the space and allow everyone to participate in the process. One thing is very clear; if you chose a popular candidate, people will work for the candidate and the party will have little or nothing to do. But when you bring an unpopular candidate and you expect the people to work with the unpopular candidate, then you have to work extra hard to sell the candidate.
These were some of the issues that came up and we tell him, allow people to chose whoever they want, but he was hell-bent on appointing his cronies that traversed from 2014 to when he joined the Labour Party. Based on that, we said no, let the party survive first and after that, you can do whatever you want because if the party wasn’t there in the first place, you won’t have been governor. The party stood on equal opportunity and social Justice for all.
We said allow everyone to participate and that was why we said let us form an election committee 2024 for the local government chairmanship and councilorship which I was made the chairman with four terms of reference to include giving notice to ABSIEC and announcing nomination of forms which came from the national headquarters, as well as monitoring the elections; that was what we exactly had been doing. We have our reports which we will hand over to the national leadership. That is where we started having divergence in opinions.
We are trying very well to ensure that we operate differently from other parties and that is why we applauded the court for holding to the sanctity of our constitution. The governor is trying to bring back PDPera in the state with neglect for due diligence for their years in power. Can you explain the areas the governor is trying to replicate PDP era in the state given that he is being praised in some parts of the country as walking his talks? The conduct of the local government election is a typical example.
Also there is no transparency in governance as we were not told the cost everything like the contracts and all that. Every activities of government is shrouded in secrecy and that is not the right way to govern. We were hitting the PDP that they should let us know what they were doing but they didn’t.
Abians employ whoever that is the governor and they should let Abians know the cost of everything, including road constructions. Even the cost of quotations should be made open to ensure transparency. Having earlier spoken glowingly of the governor, do you think Otti is now suspicious of you as you have perhaps been advising him right and at what point did this seeming no-love-lost start? To be honest with you, there have never been a time we were this close since he came into the party.
It is just that we the party members have been patient with him because our overall interest has always been how we can help the party grow even higher and bigger in the state and the nation. I have been patent and the entire party has been patient. Up till now, he didn’t find it necessary to give me a vehicle to operate and he didn’t find it necessary to be given us money to sponsor our projects and execute our programmes as a party.
All throughout the campaign and the election proper, he didn’t find it appropriate to give us any money to work but we did a lot to make sure the party won the state. Also when the appointments were made, none of us was consulted and we were not in the know on what is going on in the state, that is the issue. You were arrested at a particular time and the state government was fingered to have masterminded it.
What actually happened? It was because of the local government election where they said that I was impersonating and I was also acting like a thug. So I had to challenge them and ask that they should tell me what they meant by impersonating as the National Vice Chairman of the party South East, and as the chairman of the 2024 local government and councillorship election committee. So who was I impersonating and for what purpose should I even do such a thing as a party chieftain at that level.
They also came out to say that I extorted. I also challenged them to produce someone who can come out to say I collected one naira from him, and because of this, all of them had to cover their faces in shame; this is because no one came out to say I collected money from him; what do they even mean by impersonation and extortion? They denied that they masterminded the arrest but if it was not masterminded by the state government, should they have moved me like a common criminal? They took me to the area command and from the area command, they took me to the state CID, and from there they took me to the anti-kidnapping squad. However, I am so grateful to God Almighty who did not allow me to sleep in cell because I knew I did nothing wrong to warrant such actions.
Given that the Zenith Labour Party cleared the recent LG poll in AbiaState, do you think Governor Otti has left LP? If he has left the Labour Party, there is no problem with that. But he said he is still a member of the Labour Party although he has his mind. Like I said, if he decides to leave Labour Party at this time, so be it.
But how was it that the governor’s party didn’t win a single council area in his own state...
. (cuts in) It’s because they wrote the result and ensured that the party they wanted to win actually won. Think about it well, if the results were the true reflection of the mandate of the people, how was it that the Labour Party cannot win a single ward? Will it have been possible in the first place? We know very well what happened.
But the governor is a Labour Party man and even if they wrote the result, it should have been in favour of the governor and his party...
(cuts in) it is the governor that can answer that question for you but the truth remains that they wrote the results in favour of whichever party they want and that was what happened at the local government election. Now does the face-off between you and the governor has anything to do with allegiance and national leadership of the party? I ask this question given that Governor Otti and Peter Obi do not support Abure as the national chairman of the party while you are in support of him? It is not in their place to support or approve of who should be the national chairman of Labour Party; it is for the party to decide who should be the national chairman. This is because they were strangers, wanderers and they came to the Labour Party and were accommodated.
Admittedly they may have added one value or the other to the party but that doesn’t mean they started with us and that doesn’t mean someone, as a stranger, will come in and want to drive out the people they meet on ground; the people who built the house you now want to come and disorganise. It is not done anywhere and even the law of nature won’t allow that. What I mean is that you support Abure as the Labour Party chairman while your governor and Peter Obi don’t.
Does the crisis has anything to do with that? It was the same Abure that handed over all the nomination forms to Otti when he was an aspirant. I mean Labour Party nomination forms for the governorship position; nomination forms for the House of Representatives, the Senate nomination forms, the House of Assembly nomination forms; where has it happened before? It hasn’t happened before. He avoided us the state party chieftains and handed the forms to him.
I don’t know what he might have told him and I don’t know what they discussed and how they discussed but he handed over the forms to him. If it is the same Abure that he is coming for his head now, it’s unfortunate. Abure has seen that I stood with the truth and that is why he is joining and supporting me, knowing that that this man (me) is the right person who can always hold into his word at any given time.
Initially I don’t know what they told him about us so he chose to avoid us and handed over nomination forms to them but I am happy that now Abure has seen the true nature of everyone and that is why he is insisting that the right thing should be done at all time. What we believe is that at all time, let the right thing be done and not only be done but seen to have been done. As one of the national leaders of the Labour Party, what efforts are being made to reconcile aggrieved party members ahead of the next general election given the frenzy that accompanied the party at the last election with the involvement of the Obidient Movement? Obidient movement is still with the party and their former national coordinator is with us here still doing the same thing.
The only problem here is the issue of interest. Everybody wants to have a share and that is it. It is just politics and nothing more than that.
One thing with us now is that the structure is already here; we are strong. We are firm in our doings and even if some people decide to leave Labour Party today, it won’t matter so much because we know where we are going. On the reconciliatory move, in two three occasions, some people have reached out to me and I also reached out to the national chairman.
In other occasions, some people have reached out to the national chairman on the various moves they are making. There is this story of Peter Obi, Kwankwaso and Atiku reportedly planning an alliance ahead of 2027. As the National Vice Chairman of the party, are you or the national chairman in the know and what do you think will be the implication of such alliance? I remember telling you that we have been in the party before Obi and others came.
When they did their campaigns, they more or less did it on their own without the party being carried along. I can tell you that it won’t repeat itself. The party must know what they are doing so that we can take charge of the responsibility; it is not only when you are going to the tribunal, you start looking for the party, not when you are going for the campaign, you start looking for the party.
When decisions are taking, the party should be in the know and take responsibility. If by virtue of that, they chose to work with Kwankwaso and others without the party’s input, the party is at liberty to take other decisions. There are so many eminent Nigerians that have joined this party now who are willing.
We thank God for the impact of Peter Obi in the party and we are grateful but the party has come to stay. If he leaves, fine only that we will lose his presence; he has already brought the value he brought to the party. You said the party chairman in the state is the head of the party but it is generally known that governors are the heads of their parties in their states.
How come you don’t recognise that in Abia? “For is in LP, it is not true at all that the governor is t he head of the party; the party chairman is the head of the party and not the governor based on Labour Party constitution. Go and read the constitution of the Labour Party, it is different from what others practice. For us, the party chairman is the head of the party in the state.
Even Governor Alex Otti has said it severally that the chairman of the party in the local government is the leader there and the same thing applies at the l state level. Take your time, study the constitution of the party and see what it spells out. I want to assure our members that Labour Party has come to stay and it will spring more surprises even in the forthcoming election, mark it somewhere.
What you are seeing in Labour Party is man-made crises but I want to assure our members that Labour Party is grounded..
