Mr. Julius Abure,
National Chairman, Labour Party

Engr. Udengmobofa Udengs Eradiri,
Governorship Candidate
Labour Party
Bayelsa State

Dear Chairman,

A Case of Sabotage by the Labour Party Leadership in Bayelsa, Bribery, Injustice, Failure to Refund My N10m Excess Payment for Forms by the National Leadership and Others.

I use this medium to express myself to you and the general Labour party members believing that something will be done about this criminality and flagrant abuse and disregard to the Labour Party Constitution under your watch. I have severally raised issues about these issues, but you refused to deal with them squarely. Instead, I have become a target humiliation despite my loyalty to the ideals and dictates of party and its constitution.

I joined the Labour Party in 2022 and took part in the party's governorship primaries of 16th April 2023 and won the primaries to represent the Labour Party as its governorship candidate in Bayelsa State. After winning the primaries, I faced more opposition and setbacks within my party than I did from my real opponents.

First, I bought my forms for N25million and when the decision was made during the sales of forms to reduce the amount to N15million, I was never refunded the extra N10million. I had written for a refund but was ignored by the party leadership. Attached is a copy of the letter. I need that my refund. I contested the primary election paying higher for the forms against known moles and PDP government agents pretending as aspirants. All efforts I made to expose them fell on deaf ears. I had to put more efforts to win the primaries.

I commend the team that came for the primaries headed by the National Deputy Chairperson, Madam Ladi for displaying uprightness despite overwhelming pressure from the Bayelsa State Government House.

ENIYE Zidougha, a former state party chairman was a mole in Labour Party. In fact, he was an extension of the PDP. He has been an appointee of the Bayelsa Government, a Director in the Bayelsa State-owned Microfinance Bank.

Zidougha got the position in exchange for accepting to hold briefs for the PDP in Labour Party. I resisted all attempts to remove him by National Chairman, Bayelsa stakeholders , the LGA and ward leaders, who eventually suspended him and even his executives because I firmly hold that people cannot just wake up and remove a leader without following the laid down procedures.

Having led organizations, I also know the procedures, more so timing is key in every situation. I knew that as at that time any issues of such nature would have led led to crisis that the opposition would have taken advantage of the same way it happened in Rivers, imo and Lagos states.

I have no powers whatsoever to remove a state chairman of LP, a Local Government Area head or a unit chairman. Therefore, I had no hand in the removal of Zidougha. Kindly keep me out of it. Our constitution is clear about conduct, elections and removal of officers of the party and no part of that document gave me such latitude. I am not an interloper. I only concern myself with things that are within my powers and my authority. It is your prerogative to decide whether to congratulate and support bad behavior or discipline erring members.

I made sure we had a cordial relationship until it became inevitable to stop the influence of the PDP government on our party and my campaign activities. They made efforts to undermine my election using our state exco whose members comprised 50% PDP government employees. The following were the ways the Bayelsa State LP Exco worked for their paymasters in Government House:

1.The state exco compromised the party and ensured that most of our candidates for the state assembly, House of Representatives and the Senate were not on the ballot. They negotiated with the PDP government and deliberately refused to upload their names.

2.The ENIYE Zidougha problem with me escalated when during the visit of our Presidential Candidate and the National Exco to flag off my campaigns, he went secretly to arrange a courtesy visit by Labour Party delegation to the PDP Governor of Bayelsa State. I thank the National Chairman for vehemently turning his proposed visit down. I also commend the Presidential Candidate, who expressed shock at the development and immediately rejected it. The plan was to use the media to publish the visit as an endorsement of the governor by the LP and immediately announced that the entire structures of LP had been collapsed into PDP by Peter Obi.

3. The same way they excluded candidate for Assembly, Eniye had a meeting with the PDP through IPAC to sell the codes for the upload of party agents and I told the National Chairman about it and we refused handing the code over to ENIYE because he had concluded to transfer the codes to PDP. The PDP would have uploaded agents on behalf of Labour Party. This is what criminal-minded party leaders do to shortchange their own party for monetary gains. But I blocked it.

4. He wanted to be state party agent at INEC but I refused because I no longer trusted him and his leadership, which had remained transactional.

5. About the 8th of November, ENIYE and his executive members held a meeting in Government House and later went public to denounce Labour Party and declared support for the PDP gubernatorial candidate in the election after allegedly collecting N100million.

6. ⁠I was actually in a training session with party agents when one LGA chairman, who was in their meeting came over to inform others that the money they were expecting was N100million but Zidougha came to declared that our of the bribe money, N50million was sent to the LP national. I called you immediately and informed you about the development. But you denied knowledge of it and promised to take action by asking the Publicity Secretary to debunk it in the press. You actually asked me to do a draft of what the statement should look like. I did. But nothing was eventually done. I keep wondering why you failed to take action over such grievous allegation of indeed you knew nothing about the largesse.

7. ⁠I travelled for a vacation after the election only to see a publication from ENIYE that I had been removed from Labour Party. I laughed and sent it to you from abroad and when I returned I visited the party office in Abuja to lodge a complaint. I must confess that I had never seen the kind of hostility meted on me by you and some members of the NWC. You claimed that during my interview with the Arise TV on the 9th of November, I mentioned that the national executives partook in the Bayelsa N100m bribe. The following was what I told the Arise TV: "100m bribed Labour Party Bayelsa to abandon their candidate for the PDP, which I saw coming and that the chairman claims he sent 50m to the national. I have called the chairman who denied knowledge of such money and I await his actions”.

We met in your office and you asked the Southsouth Vice-Chairman to go investigate the matter. I was very uncomfortable because of the level of hostility that office showed to me. I met him and others to explain the context of my interview. I later discovered that the issue was not the fact that Labour Party sold out their candidate, but about why I mentioned something like that in my interview with the Arise TV. It amounted to beating someone and expecting him not to cry. I never heard from him and he refused to pick my calls. I only hear his radio announcement, which I sent to you sir.

8. ⁠All through the campaign, the Woman Leader was the only executive member, who was consistent till the end. The Chairman and Secretary followed me a few times at the beginning and stopped and started mounting pressure on the woman leader to stop accompanying our campaign train but we never relented as the LGA chairmen and ward leaders were always with us throughout the campaign period.

I am not worried at the loudness of the silence and inaction from you Mr chairman. But the fact is that you are under oath to do your job as chairman of Labour Party to protect the right of every member especially of a loyal governorship candidate. I don’t have the kind of money others display so whatever I have I put in for the progress of the party. This treatment is unfair to me and I demand the following:

1. The list of the offences I committed in Labour Party to deserve this level of unfairness.

2. The National Working Committee should set up an independent investigation of the crisis in the Bayelsa State chapter of the Labour Party.

3. Those in the national level, who took part in the sharing of the money from Bayelsa State should be exposed and made to face disciplinary action on line with the Constitution of our party.

4. Set up another independent panel to probe the National Vice-Chairman, Southsouth over the alleged N100m bribe from the Bayelsa State Government House.

5. Probe Eniye's deliberate plot to sabotage the party especially in the area of selecting the party's agents. ENIYE sent to me all the agents that I sent to administrative department of out party which was uploaded as LP agent. I discovered that a good number of them were PDP members deliberately sent as part of the deal to frustrate the party especially when I had refused to allow him fund his planned trip to abuja to partake in the uploading process and also replaced him as a party state agent. This became evident during and after a post mortem of the election was done by my team.

6. I demand an immediate refund of my N10m being the excess money I paid to procure the governorship funds of Labour Party. Recalled that the forms were initially sold for N25million but were later reduced to N15million with improvise that the excess would be refunded. But that promise has not been kept despite officially requesting for it in a letter.

Chairman I am a law-abiding member of Labour Party and a respecter of the party's Constitution. I only demand justice, which is also guaranteed by our constitution. I will seek justice by any lawful means necessary.

Yours Faithfully,
Udengmobofa Eradiri
Labour Party Governorship Candidate
Bayelsa State

Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali has been conferred with a chieftaincy title by the traditional ruler of Egbema Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Nzeobi Evaritus Amida.

The royal father conferred on Nwabali “The Pride of Egbema Kingdom” following his impressive performance for the Super Eagles at the just concluded 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON.

Amida said the shot stopper was honoured for bringing honour to the Egbema Kingdom.

It would be recalled that Nwabali was also rewarded with N20 million by the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.

The 27-year-old was also bestowed with the honour of Distinguished Service Star of River State.

Myself2:
I hope this has nothing to do with the purported targeting of Igbo-owned businesses as a punishme t for supporting Peter Obi to demystify and defeat Tinubu in lagos during the presidential.elections.

OkoAmarashy:


So, relocating Computer Village will kill Piggyvest, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Kuda, Opay, Konga, Paystack, Interswitch, NIBSS, Glovo, Chowdeck?

The problem with you illiterate traders is that you think the economy begins and ends in your 2by2 shops.

NapoleonHill:


Which kind Waka be this? Why you go go Ogba when there's straight bus to Abule Egba.

Well, for me, they are trying to relocate people by the road and not shop owners in the market itself.

DlegendofGarden:
Relocating computer Village is like killing tech business in Nigeria.
Gov shld think twice before enacting such law

PriceActionZ:

Then you dont know your way if that is the route you want to take.

Rahkman:
Omo this ebin pa wa don dey scatter everywhere even tribalist no see food chop to continue tribalism oo

kettykin:


I have traveled every inch of Nigeria, no igbo man dead or alive will leave the south east and go and kidnapp in ekiti for ransome

kettykin:


Even Evans in his hey days never kidnapped yoruba even though he operated mainly from Lagos, he never got yorubas into his activities. He never kidnapped Hausas, his main business was igbos.

Igbo man no get una time. No igbo will go to ekiti to kidnap there is nothing in ekiti. Ekiti has no attraction or anything to bring igbo kidnappers.

I don't support kidnapping but I understand the igbo kidnapper mindset

Lastmessenger2:
Chinaza is on the mud now

Lastmessenger2:
Kenneth Ugwu has been added. Chinasa is no longer flying. From now on you will be seeing Igbo names in kidnap and terrorist activities in the far North.

The Anambra State Government has sealed the popular Uwa Mgbede Market, located along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway in Onitsha, over poor “environmental and unapproved practices”.

The popular market is a terminal bubbling with buyers and sellers of various food items such as rice, beans, pepper, tomatoes, onions, yams, fish, and meat, among others.

The personnel of Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra Brigade, led by its Managing Director, Celestine Anere, sealed the facility on Friday.

This is coming a few weeks after the popular Fruit Market along the expressway was also sealed and traders forcefully relocated to the Ogbaru fruit market.

Anere said the market was sealed off for various environmental contraventions such as unapproved location, filthy environment, blocked and littered drainages, illegal and indiscriminate parking and abandonment of trucks on the major road, among others.

He said, “The market was sealed off for various environmental contraventions such as unapproved location, filthy environment, blocked and littered drainages, illegal and indiscriminate parking and abandonment of trucks on the major road, among others.

“Traders should use the various approved markets by the state government which are secured and off the roads for their safety and betterment.

“This is to warn traders constituting self-markets without approval from the state government. Anyone caught will have his or herself to be blamed.”

Meanwhile, the development generated lots of reactions as the traders lamented that no notice was given before the officials embarked on the action.

A trader, Joseph Ukonne, said, “This market has existed for over 20 years. The traders don’t constitute any environmental hazard because we clear the drainage system every week and sweep the environment at the end of each business activity every day.”

AngelGabbyShara:

A check by VANGUARD on Monday afternoon confirmed that only one video remains on the account. The video was shared ten weeks ago, and the comment section remains locked.

Iwobi is one of the players that faced criticisms after Nigeria’s 2-1 loss to Ivory Coast in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final on Sunday. The Fulham midfielder featured for 79 minutes as the Eagles failed to add to their three AFCON championships. Iwobi was replaced by Alhassan Yusuf for the last 10 minutes of the game.

A fresh crisis is brewing in the Labour Party, LP, as the party’s National Treasurer, Mrs Oluchi Oparah, on Monday demanded that the National Chairman, Julius Abure render an account of party funds over N3.5bn being proceeds of sale of forms and sundry fundraisers for the 2023 general elections.

Oparah made the demand on Monday at a press conference in Abuja.

The treasurer alleged that Abure prevented her from exercising her constitutionally assigned role of handling the party’s accounts.

Oparah equally claimed that the chairman has shunned all entreaties to open the party’s books for scrutiny after the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms closed before the 2023 general elections.

Oparah said: “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the press. I stand before you today with a heavy heart and a sense of duty to the principles of transparency, accountability, and justice. With great reluctance and deep concern, I am compelled to publicly address the media regarding the egregious financial mismanagement and corruption that have plagued our beloved party under the leadership of Mr Julius Abure, the current National Chairman.

“As National Treasurer, I am constrained to come before you and the public today because the internal mechanisms of our party have failed woefully to bring Mr Abure to account for his brazen abuse of office and misappropriation of party funds.

“His appetite for power has grown unchecked, and he has deliberately undermined my duties and authority as stipulated in the party’s constitution.”