Pandemonium erupted on Monday when suspected thugs attacked members and executives of the Edo State chapter of the Labour Party who came to protest the continued stay of the National Chairman, Julius Abure, in office after his purported suspension last week.
The hoodlums, numbering about 20 swooped on the demonstrators as they alighted from their vehicles, forcing them to retreat into the neighbouring streets.
Even the journalists covering the protest were not spared as the invaders made frantic attempts to break into the secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Utako where they took refuge in the wake of the fracas.
The situation was, however, doused after security operatives intervened and appealed for calm on both sides.
The embattled national chairman, who has been battling the NLC over an alleged plot to hijack the party, was suspended on Friday by his Ward in the Arue-Uromi area of Esan North-East Local Government in Edo State for alleged high-handedness and anti-party activities.
A letter of suspension dated May 14, 2024, and another letter of ratification dated May 15, 2024, both of which were ratified at a meeting of the state executive committee on Friday night in Benin, stated that the suspension is with immediate effect.
It advised Abure to stop holding out or parading himself as a member of the party.
The State Executive Committee led by Kelly Ogbaloi was also reported to have endorsed the decisions of the ward and local government committee of the party on Friday.
However, the National Working Committee of the party kicked against the action, which it declared as illegal and unconstitutional.
The National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, had told The PUNCH that Article 17 subsection 1 of the 2019 constitution of the Labour Party is clear that only a national convention arranged solely for the purpose of suspension with a two-third majority can suspend or remove the national chairman.
More details later…