Edo LP’s expanded SWC suspends interim committee chairman, Ativie – The Sun Nigeria

By Tony Osauzo, Benin

An expanded meeting of the State Working Committee (SWC) of the Edo State branch of the Labour Party (LP) has suspended the Chairman of the party’s transitional committee in the state, Elizabeth Ativie, for alleged gross misconduct and insubordination.

The suspension came barely a week after the party’s national leadership dissolved the party’s state executive committee led by Kelly Ogbaloi and set up a transition committee to run the party’s affairs at the state level.

The expanded meeting of the party’s state working committee, which was also attended by chairmen and secretaries of local governments, reportedly voted to suspend Ativie on Saturday evening.

The chairman of the LP in Ativie Uhunmwonde local government, Aghedo Okhiongbamwonyi, said at the meeting that the management of Ativie District 4 had issued the suspension.

He was said to have presented a letter dated May 4 to the leadership of LP in the local government communicating the suspension of Ativie, co-signed by Charles Usiesefe and Mike Ighile, the county chairman and county secretary respectively.

In the letter, the party leadership had warned Ativie not to pretend to be a member of the LP or to show off.

In addition, another letter dated May 30, 2024, confirming her suspension by the local government was presented to the expanded session of the SWC.

However, in her response to her suspension, Ativie stated that she remains the authentic national chairperson of the party and has no knowledge of any meeting during which she was suspended.

“You should know that under the Labour Party constitution, no district or local authority leader has the power to suspend other persons or the leader.

“It is doomed to failure from the start. I am the current state chairman of the Labour Party in Edo State,” she said.