The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has been arrested by policemen in Benin City, the Edo State capital. NewsCritic online gathered that he was arrested following an attempted murder allegation levelled against him. His arrest is coming less than 24 hours to the party’s governorship primaries in Edo State.
Abure was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, it was gathered. The spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force Zone 5, Tijani Momoh, confirmed the development to Channels Television.
Momoh, however, did not disclose details of Abure’s arrest as of press time.
The party’s national chairman has been embroiled in a crisis with the party’s suspended National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara, who accused Abure of financial malfeasance, forgery and embezzlement of the party’s funds realised during the 2023 presidential election.
Abure and the party had denied the allegations even as Opara insisted that the national chairman should account for both naira and dollar donations to the party in the last poll.
LP presidential candidate in the last poll, Peter Obi, had said external auditors would probe the party’s financial books.
Last week, the Labour Party suspended Opara for six months, saying contrary to allegations of abuse levelled against the leadership of the party by Opara, the party only realised N1.2 billion from donation from members and sales of forms to some aspirants in the 2023 polls.
The party alleged that Opara was being sponsored by the same people who used Lamidi Apapa, Anslem Eragbe, and Yomi Arabambi to derail the party.
