Edo: Workers’ Party suspends parliamentary group leader Ativie

There is no end in sight to the crisis rocking the Edo State branch of the Labour Party as the party continues to be plagued by suspensions and counter-suspensions ahead of the September 21, 2024 gubernatorial election.

DAILY POST reports that the party leadership in the state has ratified the purported suspension of the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, by the Executive Council of Ward 3, Arue-Uromi, in Esan North-East Local Government Area on Friday, May 24, 2024.

Abure was suspended for alleged anti-party activities.

Barely 72 hours after the suspension, Julius Abure dissolved the State Working Committee led by Kelly Ogbaloi and replaced it with a 17-member interim committee led by Elizabeth Ativie, the former Speaker of the Edo State House of Representatives.

This development, however, led to a polarization of the party and created a rift between the factions of Julius Abure and Olumide Akpata, the party’s gubernatorial candidate.

As the crisis continued unabated, the faction led by Kelly Ogbaloi suspended Elizabeth Ativie from the party on Saturday, accusing her of gross misconduct and insubordination.

Ativie’s suspension was decided at an expanded meeting of the State Working Committee (SWC), attended by local government chairmen and party secretaries.

Aghedo Sunny Okhiongbamwonyi, the party’s chairman in Uhunmwonde local government, read out the suspension of Ativie by her district.

Okhiongbamwonyi said the former Speaker of the State House of Assembly was suspended from Ward 4 on May 4, 2024 for gross anti-party activities and insubordination.

He said the suspension letter was signed by the district chairman, Charles Usiesefe, and secretary, Mike Ighile.

He said the suspension took immediate effect.

He said the controversial parliamentary group leader had been advised not to pose as a party member or to show off in the district.

Okhiongbamwonyi added that the suspension was ratified by the party’s local government representatives on May 30, 2024.

He explained that the local government authority considered all the reasons leading to its suspension to be irrefutable and therefore ratified the suspension.

After the party’s state executive committee approved the suspension, the party’s state working committee also ratified the suspension of the parliamentary group leader.

In her response, Ativie stated that she remained the official national chair of the party and was not aware of any meeting in which she had been suspended.

“You should know that according to the Labour Party constitution, no district or local government chairman has the power to suspend anyone or the chairman. This is doomed to failure from the start, I am the current Labour chairman in Edo State,” she said.