In this interview with the suspended National Treasurer of the Labour Party (LP), Ms Oluchi Opara sheds light on the leadership crisis in the party, the genesis, his suspension and others issues. PATRICK OSADEBAMWEN brings the excerpts.
WHY did you not appear before the committee set up to investigate your allegation which resulted in your suspension as announced by your party through the National Publicity Secretary, Pastor Obiora Ifoh?
Before anything, let me tell you that the person you people call National Publicity Secretary (NPS), Mr Obiora Ifoh has never been a member of the National Working Committee (NWC). He is Abure’s media aide. He was handpicked to come and do what he is doing.
On the issue of their concocted suspension, they are only trying to cover what transpired. They called themselves there to Abuja; they know I was still a member of the NWC. They never bothered to call me. You cannot shave a man’s head in his absence. They reached an agreement to set up a disciplinary committee to discipline the whistle-blower.
In a sane environment, the right thing for them to do would have been to call Barrister Julius Abure to step aside so that they can conduct a proper investigation. Instead, as sycophants which they know they are, people who cannot face the issue and treat it on its merit, they suspended me. I’m just laughing at the whole drama.
Now when they called themselves to Abuja, they did not call me. That is one. Then, they went to the platform and did not invite me. What they actually did was to send a press release at 9:24pm, on Thursday, 13th February. I saw it at 10:09pm the same day, because I am a law-abiding member of the party, I obliged to honour it. My response was ‘this is to show that I am still an NWC member and you (people) are going to Abuja and you did not tell me.’ I am not in Abuja as I write you, However, my flight was due to arrive Abuja same day at 2pm because I was flying into Abuja on the 14th of February. I appealed to them to move that time from 10am to 4pm same day because I will have time to go home and refresh factoring the time from the airport.
However, because they had a premeditated agenda to cover the truth from the public, they went ahead in fragrance of the Doctrine of fair hearing and embarrassed themselves. I am particularly disappointed at Mr Edun, the LP legal adviser. He was there and did not even draw the attention of the committee that fair hearing was not properly carried out.
What was he doing there as the legal adviser? When he sits there and things are going the wrong way, what is he advising? It is wrong. Again the national deputy chairman, Comrade Ladi Ilya, had earlier on that (same) day called me on phone and said, ‘Oluchi, we know you are correct; all the things you are saying are correct but, this is an issue that you should not have gone public about.
I asked her, ‘why will it not go public when I have been raising it for the past seven months; we all know Abure, the moment issues like this come up, all Abure does is to set up a committee that will come and clear him of all allegations and at the end of the day, the whistle-blower gets suspended. And the issue ends up not being investigated.
The leader of the party and presidential candidate in the 2023 poll, Mr Peter Obi, has called for a forensic audit. Do you have confidence in that move?
While I do not want to join issue with the leader of the party, the heartwarming truth being told is that he has come out to exonerate himself and called for the forensic audit. He has been telling Abure to do the right thing since seven months ago, when I began writing on this matter, Abure being who he is, refused to listen to the leadership of the party. The good thing now is that the matter is before a federal high court and I have also petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC now has a direct role to play in probing the issue because I have invited them with my petition even with the invitation of the forensic auditor being invited by the presidential candidate of the party.
The Forum of chairmen recently made a call that you should be recalled. What does such a call mean to you?
They know what they have done was wrong; it was just to cover up. They have realised the important and notorious fact that you do not punish the whistle-blower because the whistle-blower renders service to the public and society. Therefore, the society, in the long run, would stand with the whistle-blower. It is clear that there is a need for Abure to step aside and allow for a forensic audit. I am actually surprised that Ceekay Igara would say that I, the national treasurer of the party, Oluchi Opara lied; that there is no money of the Labour Party that is missing. Let me state it here and unambiguously too, that Ceekay Igara is but a state chairman in Abia State and he does not have any right to speak on the issue of finances in the party, particularly at the national level. I am the national treasurer, not the Abia state LP treasurer.
Knowing that this matter is before the federal high court, and he has come out to say I am lying, then he will come to the court to explain the lies he claimed I have told, particularly, for boldly saying that no money was missing. It appears to me that Ceekay Igara knows what I do not know of the party finances. It is clear from his bold statement that no money is missing from the Labour party coffers; that he handles the party finances with Julius Abure. So, he would have to come and explain to the court what he knows that I do not know because that document was signed by him.
If recalled to the NWC, will you submit self for re-admittance?
Give and take, they have goofed. They did not follow the due process required to suspend an officer of the party. No matter how the matter is looked at, whether they call me back or the court does, I will be recalled and investigation must be carries out to the very last.
How do you see the suspension in this whole matter, particularly when you said you have been on this matter for the past seven months and some party officials say you are correct but should have kept the matter internally?
It is a witch-hunt. Abure has made them to always believe that he is the only one that can bring them back to become NWC members. I see them as people struggling to survive, I ask a question of what use is being an NWC member, when you cannot even leave a footprint, not even a mark, on this one lap they are finishing? They cannot stand up and speak when things are getting bad. Of what use will they be to the party and Nigerians in particular to be re-elected? After all the drama, some of them have called to apologise to me. I responded to them that I do not hold any grudge with anyone. I’m not fighting a factional fight. I am fighting to leave my name on gold. I’m fighting for my kids so that they can be proud of their mother when I am not there.
I want to be that woman who would look at someone in the face and the comment would be, ‘oh girl, you have done noble.’
The national publicity secretary said you have no record of account in the party pre-Abure emergence, how do you react to this?
The NPS is just an aide of the party chairman; he has not spent up to one year in the party. I’m talking of the record before Abure’s emergence as national chairman. The NPS should know that Barrister Abure has been in the system long before him. His claim that I was indicted falls flat. How could I have been indicted and yet re-elected in 2015 into the same position? For how long will they continue to deceive Nigerians?
The NPS also said you have two weeks to the end of your tenure in the party….
That is to even tell you that he is not grounded in the party. He calls himself the NPS and does not know that my tenure and that of the national chairman ends in June this year. We are all leaving office the same day. This tells you that he is just reading out what he was told, not what is the reality.
Who is bankrolling your whistle-blowing trajectory?
You know these people have come out to say that I am being sponsored. I want to say that whosoever comes out to reveal ill that is happening in the party, the next thing they say is that the person is being sponsored against the party. I do not have anyone sponsoring me whatsoever. How could they have been waiting for the past seven months since I have been writing letters to draw the attention of the party leaders to this issue by the national chairman?
I think Abure has stepped on a lot of people’s toes. Abure has no right to suspend any NWC member whatsoever. There are laid down procedures for that to happen, I think that by virtue of my office which has the jurisdiction on our party finances and the public alert I have raised is in order and has authenticate what others before me have done.
