The internal crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) took a dramatic turn on Friday as the National Chairman, Julius Abure, accused Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, of betrayal and misrepresentation, declaring that the party’s leadership played a pivotal role in Otti’s rise to power.
Abure’s remarks came during an emergency meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee held at the LP secretariat in Abuja, following Otti’s earlier appearance on Arise Television where he claimed to have “retrieved” the party from Abure and dismissed his continued claim to leadership as “masturbation.”
“The party that brought me to power is Labour. Today we have fought and retrieved it,” Otti said on the morning show, referencing a Supreme Court judgment. “When you finish reading it, you will know that Abure is just masturbating.”
In a swift and fiery response, Abure insisted that Otti’s political fortunes were built on the sacrifices and support of the same party leadership he now seeks to discredit.
“Without sounding immodest, we made Governor Alex Otti,” Abure stated. “We supported him, rejected bribes and offers, just so he could become the governor he is today. Yet he goes on national television to mislead the public.”
Abure further condemned what he described as Otti’s use of “foul language,” stating that such conduct was unbecoming of a sitting governor. “My concern is his foul language. Dwarfy and Lilliputian men were once seen as men of great ideas, but Alex Otti is dwarfy in both appearance and knowledge,” he said.
Referring to the Supreme Court ruling Otti cited, Abure maintained that the court affirmed internal party leadership as a domestic matter governed strictly by the party’s constitution. “Even a layman knows that the party’s constitution is supreme,” he added.
The LP chairman said he was “embarrassed” to see Otti and other party dissidents deliver a copy of the judgment to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), describing it as an attempt to “harass and intimidate” the electoral body.
“See how a whole governor reduced himself to carrying the Supreme Court CTC to INEC, parading himself like a cricket,” Abure said. “But INEC is a civilised institution guided by law and procedure.”
Abure concluded by distancing Otti from the party’s values, warning that his conduct does not align with the Labour Party’s 2023 promise of producing leaders who would build a “New Nigeria.”
Tensions between Abure and Otti reflect deeper divisions within the party, which has struggled with internal power tussles following its unexpected rise to prominence in the last general elections.
