FactCheck: LP’s Abure never called for emergency meeting with Obi, Otti after party lost in Abia LG election

By Pascal Ibe

An X user, @SenNenadiParody, has claimed that the Julius Abure faction of the Labour Party called for an emergency meeting with the 2023 presidential candidate for the party, Peter Obi, and current Abia state governor, Alex Otti.

@SenNenadiParrody wrote, “Breaking News.
After losing Abia State, Julius Abure has called for an emergency meeting with Peter Obi, Alex Otti, and Sen Nenadi Usman.

“Is he ready to surrender?

This claim by the X user garnered over 150k views and more than 1k likes, according to X analytics.

Background

On 03 November 2024, Labour Party, the ruling party in Abia, failed to win any chairmanship position in Saturday’s Local Government Election.

When the Chairman of the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC), Prof George Chima, announced the result of the poll at the commission’s headquarters in Umuahia, the state capital, the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) clinched 15 Chairmanship seats, while the Young Progressives Party (YPP) won two seats.

Labour Party’s protracted crisis at national level percolated to Abia State because of the disagreement between national leadership and Governor Alex Otti.

Otti convened a stakeholders’ parley which rejected national chairman Abure’s leadership and enthroned Mrs. Nenadi Usman as caretaker chairman to mid-wife another national convention to produce a new leadership.

In the rundown of the local government election in Abia State, the party’s national leadership sent a list of candidates different from the ones picked by its Abia chapter.

The candidates loyal to Governor Otti contested on the ticket of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

Verifying This Claim

First, there are no reputable news organizations anywhere that reported that the Abure faction has called an emergency meeting with Mr Obi and Otti.

Checks on the official X account of the Labour Party which is controlled by the faction loyal to Abure, confirmed that there’s no statement which supported this claim.

On the official X account of the party, the statements dated 03 and 04 November, disclosed that Mr Abure is currently in the United States to observe presidential election.

Verdict

The claim that Abure faction of the Labour Party has called an emergency meeting with Mr Obi and Otti is FALSE after findings.