Senator Usman will lead the caretaker committee which is expected to resolve the crisis in the party and organise a convention within 90 days.

Extended stakeholders of the Labour Party, including its former presidential candidate, Peter Obi and Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, have appointed Senator Esther Nenadi Usman as the party’s Caretaker Committee Chairman.

The decision, which was reached at a stakeholders meeting held in Umuahia, Abia State capital, on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, was aimed at repositioning the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Usman is a former Minister of Finance who also represented Kaduna South senatorial district in the National Assembly between 2011 and 2015.

The 29-member Caretaker Committee has the immediate past Senate Minority Deputy Leader, Senator Darlington Nwokocha from Abia Central as its Secretary.

The committee has been given 90 days to resolve the leadership crisis and organise a convention where a new leadership of the party would emerge from the ward to the national stage.

The move has delegitimised the party's National Working Committee (NWC) led by the embattled National Chairman Julius Abure.

Other attendees of the meetings are Obi's running mate in 2023, Datti Baba-Ahmed; Senator Victor Umeh; and Lagos State governorship candidate of the party in 2023, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, among other bigwigs.

Abure kicks against caretaker committee

Meanwhile, Abure has rejected the appointment of Usman and the caretaker committee, describing the decision as illegal, unconstitutional, and an enterprise in futility.

Abure, who spoke through the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, argued that the outcome of a validly conducted national convention held in Nnewi earlier this year still exists.

“As clearly stated in our previous statement, the Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti and all others who have converged in Umuahia have no power within the Party Constitution, the Electoral Act and even within the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to convene any meeting of the Party.

“The combined reading of the two provisions shows clearly that the so-called meeting in Umuahia is a charade, a waste of time and resources of the Abia People.

“The premise on which Governor Alex Otti called the meeting is not only faulty but mischievous. Government business is not transacted verbally but through official communication and correspondence which are done in writing. As we speak, there is no communication whatsoever from INEC to the Party as regards any objection to the conduct of the National Convention.

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“We challenge Alex Otti to produce the official letter addressed to him from INEC on the subject matter. There is no vacuum in the leadership of the Party.

“Consequently, the so-called caretaker committee set up by the Governor of Abia State is not known to the constitution of the Party and can best be described as a department in Abia State Government House.

“We are shocked to note that the so-called chairman of the caretaker committee is not a registered member of the Party. She surfaced during the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign to assist Peter Obi in his campaign,” the statement read.