*crisis escalates as party denies Iwuoba’s faction identity
The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) in Anambra state yesterday assumed a new and dangerous dimension when some unidentified gunmen allegedly stormed the venue of a scheduled state exco meeting in Awka.
The gunmen, according to the party chairman, Comrade Jude Ezenwafor who witnessed the episode said the heavily armed men arrived the party office in a Vigilante vehicle with about 8 gun men and drove his executive away from the meeting under gunpoint.
Expressing his disgust over the development, the chairman appealed to security operatives in the state to rise up to the occasion and arrest those he name in his earlier petition as he would not like to take laws into his hands. He said he had already briefed their lawyers to take the matter up with the police
Meanwhile, after regrouping at a new location, the party at their crucial meeting denied the identity and sincerity of a group led by one Chief Basil Iwuoba.
Rising from the 2hours brainstorming, the party declared with emphasis that Iwuoba and his co-travelers were well-known political merchants and agents of destabilization. That they were never registered members of the party in any of the 326 electoral wards in the state as members of the party.
The chapter specifically drew the attention of Iwuoba and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Articles 3, 4 and 15(2) of the party’s Constitution that clearly stipulates the tenure, process and eligibility to contest, vote and be voted for in any congress of the party. That it was therefore preposterous to organize a kangaroo gathering with a view to generate crises in the cohesive party.
They therefore alerted the security agencies, especially the Inspector General of Police, the State Security Service and the National Security Adviser on the overbearing acts of the political miscreants.
To press home their point, the 21 council chairmen of the party has resolved to march on the national headquarter of the party to personally notify them of the nefarious conducts and inglorious consequences of the Iwuoba attack on the party.
But when Iwuoba was contacted for his reaction to the allegations, he said that Ezenwafor was too small for him to join issues with him whatsoever.
