'LP Chairman must come from the North' - Peter Obi's ally says as NLC demands Abure's sack

Akin Osuntokun, the Director General of the presidential campaign council of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election says the Chairmanship of the party should come from the North.

He made this known in an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday, March 20. He opined if the party leader, Peter Obi is from the South, the chairman must come from the North.

His comment comes from a seeming standoff in the party ahead of the party's national convention.

"I think the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, effectively the leader of the party is from the South. Now if we believe in the logic of balance, ethno-regional balance and you know, what we call power shift, I am of the opinion that the chairman this time around should come from the north. That is my own opinion"

"I'm not saying that is the stand of the Labour Party. Whether or not, I don't know. But this is my own position that if the leader of the party is from the south, the chairman of the party should be from the north," he said.

Some members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) converged at the national secretariat of the Labour Party on Wednesday, as it called for the postponement of the party’s convention.

The crowd that gathered demanded the immediate resignation or removal of Julius Abure as National Chair of the LP.

Outside the terraces of the secretariat, NLC members bearing placards with different inscriptions gyrated and sang along to solidarity songs blaring from a loudspeaker placed in a stationary van, Cable News reported.

In a press statement issued on Tuesday, the NLC had asked its members in the states to picket all secretariats of the LP nationwide over the “financial rascality and contempt for the leadership of NLC” by Abure.

NLC has repeatedly accused Abure of “unilaterally trying to hold a national convention in contravention of the constitution of the party”.