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| R-L Ogboru and Ezeagwu when the going was good |
The Labour Party, LP, governorship candidate for April 11, 2015 election in Delta State, Chief Great Ovadje Ogboru and twelve others chieftains of the party have been suspended from the party for alleged anti-party activities, Bigpenreports can report.
This came as Labour Party national secretariat says no resignation letter was received from Ogboru who claimed to have resigned from the party a week ago.
Bigpenreports recalls that Ogboru and some chieftains of the party after a meeting in Ekpan, near Warri had claimed through a splinter group of the party which styled itself as “Light Of Labour”, ( LOL), to have resigned from Labour Party.
They equally declared to have taken over the structure of LP and promised to go ahead with merger/fusion with All Progressive Congress (APC), without the backing of embattled LP Delta state chairman, Chief Tony Ezeagwu who they alleged had compromised his position as state chairman of LP.
Ogboru was quoted to have said; “There is an understanding within the LP, which states that when am leaving the party with my supporters, we would hand over the party to the original chairman of the party.
“If he (Ezeagwu) wants to go, he can go. What is our business with Ezeagwu who cannot win one unit in the State? If he is coming, fine, but if he is not, he can go on his own but he is going with nothing and the rightful chairman of the party would take over the party.”
But addressing newsmen in Asaba on Wednesday from a press release made available to Bigpenreports, LP national chairman Alhaji Abdulkadir Salam said that the national leadership of the party was not aware of any agreement purportedly entered into with Ogboru in the build up to the 2015 general election.
The statement signed by LP national chairman however described Ogboru's purported claims of handing over the administration of the party to one Comr. Emeka Nkwoala JP without evidence as frivolous allegation, a fallacy and vexatious and therefore slammed him and 12 others with indefinite suspension order in accordance with provision of the party’s constitution for anti party activities.
Salam in the statement also reiterated that the party in Delta State under Chief Tony Ezeagwu, was intact and has no plan to merge with All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.
The statement read; “Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, with his frivolous allegation of agreement deal with the party, handing over the administration to one Comr. Emeka Nkwoala JP without evidence is a fallacy and vexatious.
"This is because it is evidenced that the Labour Party Delta State had conducted congresses from the ward level to state level respectively.
“Consequently, with his anti-party activities resigned to an unfounded and unknown chairman created by him, but not the pragmatic, amiable and prestifious Labour Party chairman, Chief Tony C. Ezeagwu, JP who did not receive any resignation letter from Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru but in the pages of the national daily.
"On this note, therefore, the punitive authority of Labour Party has found these persons wanting and stand suspended indefinitely from the party.”
The suspension letter further states that the suspended persons should not call or attend any meetings of the political party.
It could be recalled that there have been a cold war between Ogboru and the Delta State chairman of the Labour Party, LP, Chief Tony Ezeagwu over the party’s purported merger plan with the All Progressive Congress, APC.
Bigpenreports learnt that the brewing crisis in the party started after Ogboru moves to hand over the state structure of the party to one Emeka Nkwoala who supposely was Ezeagwu's deputy in a bid to undo the state's LP chairman who had reportedly refused to join the merger talk.
The plans backfired when the national leadership of the party, miffed about the proposed merger/fusion talk with APC quickly disassociated itself from it and consequently suspended those reportedly involved for anti-Party activities.
