Splendor Eze-Oko, the Ebonyi State governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the just concluded March 18, gubernatorial election, has accused the embattled National Chairman, Julius Abure, of forgery and conspiracy which led to his (Eze-Oko) replacement a few days before the election until the courts intervened. In this interview with SAMUEL MAYOWA, Eze-Oko said Abure’s suspension was long overdue; arguing that criminality in any form should not be condoned, no matter who is involved. He also alerted security agencies about the threat to his life as a result of the judgment suspending the former chairman and three others from office. Excerpts:
Why do you and a few others want your national chairman, Julius Abure, out as the chairman of your party?
To start with, you’re familiar with my case and several courts; starting from the Federal High Court to the Supreme Court which is the apex court in Nigeria, all have ruled on this matter. The police investigation report, and the CTC are also out and all geared towards the fact that my signature was forged, and that I never tendered any withdrawal letter to anybody. It is criminal for anybody, whatever the position in the country to indulge in criminality. The court ruling in Edo was not on the criminal matter, it was on the suspension meted out to Abure by his own people. But the ruling in Abuja was specifically on the accusation leveled against Abure. Somebody can’t be a judge in his own case; you can’t have a criminal matter on your neck and you still want to remain as the national chairman, justice will not be served. So, what they (NWC) simply did was to obey the court order which stated that Abure and three others should stop parading themselves as national officers of the party pending the determination of the suit. The one in Abuja was about the criminal aspect while the one in Edo was simply on suspension by his ward, so which one is greater?
But the suspension of Julius Abure by the ward has been nullified by the court, meaning that he should remain as chairman; the other one in Abuja said because of the criminal nature of the matter, he should step down. Considering the court rulings, what do you think should be done?
Check the date of the judgments, which one is supposed to stand? If you have a criminal matter, and the court says stop parading yourself as a national officer and you preempted the judgment that’s going to come against you, and you ran to another court, which now said that it’s nullifying whatever activities the ward executives conducted against you, which one is superior? Which one is supposed to stand? I don’t paint issues, I don’t mince words. In the last interview you conducted with me, I simply told you that my signature was forged. It has now been proven that indeed my signature was forged and a court of competent jurisdiction has given an order based on that. Nobody should be above the law. Abure should obey the order of the court.
“Everybody in Nigeria knows that Peter Obi is clean, there’s no such case attached to his personality. We cannot allow characters like Abure to hide under Peter Obi. The case of forgery was not just against me, there were several cases of forgery all over the country by him for selfish interests, self-aggrandizement, and self-enrichment. Leadership is a call to serve, for crying out loud”
What would you say about the alleged attack on the party’s secretariat?
There was no single attack, don’t listen to what Abure is saying. Abure is trying to draw unnecessary sympathy to himself. The leaders of the party went and had their NWC meeting in the secretariat, and they decided to say Abure, since you have criminal charges on your neck, step aside, so that the party can move on. They now appointed an acting chairman, what is wrong with that? Will the party end because of Abure? Is Abure the only chairman that has chaired the Labour Party? Some people have been chairmen. When you’re found wanting, you have to give way, so that the party will move on.
When Abure came to tell people that the party was attacked, that the fence and gate were pulled down, my dear brother, just send somebody to that secretariat now and confirm such allegations. Nothing of such happened. The fence is there, the gate is there, and everything is intact. Will Abure stop the party from progressing? Let me tell you something, what destroys our reasoning in Nigeria is when somebody claims he’s lord over others. The party is run by the National Working Committee and the NEC, we even have the Board of Trustees, members. So, nobody is a god in the political party. Take a look at what happened with the national chairman of PDP, didn’t he step aside? Go and check the history of political parties’ leadership, once you’re found guilty of a particular thing, you step aside. If you refuse to step aside, you’ll be putting yourself into more trouble. Let me tell you something, I’ve been thinking that Abure will come out boldly to tell Nigerians that he didn’t forge signatures. You’ve not approached the matter, come and say no, you didn’t forge signatures. Why is he avoiding that aspect? We’re yearning for a new Nigeria; every youth in this country is tired of the whole system. We can’t allow the old system to continue. Everybody in Nigeria knows that Peter Obi is clean, there’s no such case attached to his personality. We can’t allow characters like Abure hide under Peter Obi. The case of forgery wasn’t just against me, there were several cases of forgery all over the country by him for selfish interests, self-aggrandizement, and self-enrichment. Leadership is a call to serve, for crying out loud. Every time you see yourself within the corridors of power, you should know that you’re there to serve people, not to be lord over people. Let me tell you, anybody who continues to support Abure in this instance is just trying to support criminality. The best thing for Abure to do is to step aside and let the party continue to exist.
In the press conference he had, he didn’t show us any picture of the attacked secretariat….
He was not even in Abuja; he did that press conference in Edo, with no picture, nothing. As I speak to you, go to Utako where the office is. Go and check by yourself whether you’ll see any attack. How can somebody who is in Edo be telling Nigerians that the office in Abuja has been attacked? Those people who asked him to step aside, who appointed a new acting chairman, aren’t they members of the party? The person that was appointed to replace Abure is the deputy national chairman. There’s a video clip, you’ll see the man, you’ll see his name, he mentioned his name, you’ll see the national legal adviser was there, the national publicity secretary was there, national youth leader was there, national vice chairmen of zones were there, so many national executives were there, and you’re saying that they are thugs?
You said Abure’s suspension should have happened long ago. Could it be that the former national publicity secretary, Arabambi, took the matter up and engineered this, because he was suspended?
No, I disagree with that. Abure and his group should’ve been arrested before now but some of us looked at it that bringing up this matter before the presidential election will definitely affect our principal, Peter Obi. It will look like a distraction towards his presidential bid. So, I personally asked that every matter be suspended until the general election was concluded. Now the general election has come and gone and you know that a criminal matter if you don’t handle it with care will continue to expand. Somebody else in that national working committee may come up and say Abure did this and nothing happened, let me do it also. But when this thing is tackled the way it’s being tackled, it will act as a deterrent. People should learn how to come and serve the people, not to come and enrich themselves. Until we get things correct in this country, this country cannot get better. If you’re coming to be the president of Nigeria, you should bear it in mind that you’re coming to serve. If you’re coming to be the governor, bear in mind that you’re coming to serve. Until we see it as a call for service, this country won’t get better. The other day, I was telling somebody, what on earth will make somebody who is supposed to be serving the people to come out with 30 cars on the road, expensive jeeps on the road, security everywhere, who is pursuing you? Go and check the convoy; who is actually pursuing you? You are pursuing yourself, you are after yourself. Why would you decide to go and get 30 cars in your convoy? It is because you’re sure that you’ve embezzled public funds and you don’t know who and who is after you. But if you sincerely serve the people, I don’t think you’ll be so afraid of going around with SSS, police, or the army.
What do you make of the outbursts of APC chieftains who said Baba Ahmed was making a treasonable statement and so called for his arrest?
I don’t buy the idea of intimidating anybody. If the opposition is saying that the election was not properly conducted, I don’t think that is treasonable. If they say that what you told us, what the INEC chairman said is the way he wants to conduct the election and the way BVAS will work and in the end, the BVAS did not work that way, and people are coming out to say no, what you told us is not what we saw; I don’t think it’s treasonable. I want to state clearly here that Nigerians should speak freely, we have freedom of speech. When someone says something, you should see it from the angle from which he’s looking at it, you shouldn’t give a misinterpretation to it. So, for me, as an ordinary Nigerian, I don’t think anybody is threatening anybody. I don’t think there is any treasonable felony committed anywhere. If somebody is not satisfied with the electoral process or with the election proper, the person has the right to go to court. They have gone to court; I think the best thing to do is to wait to see the outcome of the case in the tribunal.
You must have heard that Peter Obi raised an alarm that he’s being pressured to leave the country. What would you say regarding that?
The truth is that Peter Obi is not a commoner. Peter Obi is a big name in the country, as far as we are concerned. Let’s be very factual, Peter Obi, to the best of my knowledge, is loved by the youths of this country, and they’ve demonstrated it. So, anybody persuading or cajoling him to leave the country, I don’t think the person is doing anything good for us.
If all of us leave the country, who is going to develop the country? Let’s assume that we all decided to leave the country, who is going to be in the country? I am of the opinion that anybody or group of persons threatening or cajoling him to leave the country should desist forthwith. They should allow a level playing ground, everybody is important. The contest in the 2023 election has to do with at least four major political parties, APC, PDP, Labour Party, and NNPP, when you look at them, if these four major political parties did not come out to actually pull the bull by the horn, the democracy we were looking for wouldn’t have been seen. The beauty of democracy is opposition; everybody must not be praising you. But once you have so many people praising you, you’ll be misled. Sometimes, those tiny voices that always come to say Oga you didn’t do well here, you should have done it here, if you follow those voices, you will see that at the end, you’ll be the best leader. But when you have sycophants, eulogizing you when you are doing the wrong thing, in the end, you’ll have the worst government on the surface of the earth. That is what our leaders want in Nigeria, they want people who praise them, and they don’t want people who tell them the truth. I am pleading with whoever is involved in such an act to desist forthwith. Allow everybody to live freely in this country.
Regarding the court case of Peter Obi against the outcome of the election which saw Bola Tinubu emerge as president-elect, do you have confidence in the judiciary?
I’m very confident. Why I’m telling you I’m confident is that I had been in court, I was in the federal high court, and I got a judgment in my favour, even when I didn’t have as much money as my opponent had. They proceeded to the Appeal Court, they were even bragging that they were going to buy the judgment over in their favour, and they brought all manner of SANs. In the end, I got a judgment in my favour. They proceeded to the Supreme Court, and came with four SANs and four lawyers, but in the end, I got a judgment in my favour. So, I believe in the judiciary because I believe that it’s the last hope of the common man. That notwithstanding, I want to plead with the judges that will handle this matter to make sure that they are seen as being neutral because in this country you are seeing, the last hope we have is in the judiciary. When they deliver a judgment that they say yes, everybody sees the judgment is unbiased, and the confidence that everybody was losing will return massively for the judiciary. I pray that they should not allow themselves to be used by desperate politicians because politicians that are desperate can do anything. You know as a human being, it takes the grace of God for you to say no to this temptation. When they come with this bribe, my dear brother, if you don’t have God by your side, you will fall into their temptation. These are men who will never remember you in life until they have issues. Once they have issues, they’ll come with millions and begin to remind you of how the millions can be very helpful in your life. They’ll even go to the extent to tell you that you know, your children that are in public school are not supposed to be there, and you know the reason why they are there is because of the situation in the country, but here now is an opportunity for you to fly them abroad, for you to live a big life. They’ll count numerous things that you’re supposed to be doing but if you’re not careful, you’ll fall into that trap, and in the end, they’ll find their way.
“This issue of the failure of the Labour Party in Ebonyi State was caused by Julius Abure. And it is not just peculiar to Ebonyi State, it happened in different states where authentic candidates were shortchanged because of money, thereby creating court cases”
In the governorship election in your state, you weren’t successful in your bid. What will you attribute to this?
The truth is that my issue started from the house. There were lots of distractions. All those periods that I was in court were a distraction. Those periods that I was supposed to use for campaigning and talking to people, I diverted to a court case which was a deliberate act by Julius Abure, the ex-national chairman. He never wanted the Labour Party to win the election in Ebonyi State, which was why he came with such distractions. How can you tell me that a candidate will be going to court every now and then, and you’ll expect the same person to be campaigning and all that? Is that possible? Considering that campaigns in Nigeria or elections in Africa as a whole is very capital-intensive. How are you going to be handling court cases and campaigning, is it possible? So, this issue of the failure of the Labour Party in Ebonyi State was caused by Julius Abure. And it is not just peculiar to Ebonyi State, it happened in different states where authentic candidates were shortchanged because of money, thereby creating court cases. In Ebonyi State, we had about 18 House of Assembly court cases, we had six national assembly court cases, we had one governorship court case that lingered to almost the Supreme Court level. So, tell me, if the national chairman had wanted me to win the election, would he have gone to that extent? Go and check our votes in the presidential election, we had above 90 percent. Then, coming to the national assembly, we won one House of Reps, and one state house of assembly which is proof that if Julius Abure did not place money above the party, we would have won all our elections. So, I don’t think the failure of the Labour Party in Ebonyi State should be shifted or diverted to Barrister Julius Abure. He did that for his selfish interest, and even when I told him that the man he was going to bring as my substitute is of the APC, he turned a deaf ear to it. Now, all those moles have gone back to APC. This is one of the things Abure did that the National Working Committee members are saying no, step aside. I’m not looking at it the way others are looking at it. If you’re found wanting in the discharge of your duties, you shouldn’t come and play demigod, you must remain there, you’re serving the people. The constituency Abure has is the national working committee. If you step out from the NWC, you’ll find the NEC, if you step out from the NEC, you’ll now have society. If the NEC that’s almost of the same rank as you comes up to say, because of what you did here, because of what the court said you had done, because of what the police said you had done, please step aside, so that the party will move on, I don’t see anything wrong with that. After all, somebody was there before you took over. The person that was there before you took over, somebody else was there before he took over, that’s how a party is run. Even this acting chairman, there will be a time when they will either ask him to step aside or they will give him a higher responsibility because of what he has done. If he did well in the eyes of the people, the people might decide to say, in this convention, please you will be re-elected, so that you can have a full tenure.
Do you think the election in your state was free and fair?
The election wasn’t free and fair because I saw vote buying, and intimidation everywhere. But when you know within yourself that something prompted your failure internally, you don’t go to make a case. If Abure had allowed the contest to go the way it was supposed to go, by now, I’m supposed to go to court challenging the outcome of the election. But in a situation where, although you know that the election wasn’t completely free and fair, you know where your problem started, you shouldn’t be caricaturing yourself by going to court, when you know your problem started from your house.
So, you have to sanitise your house first before going outside. But I know too that the candidate of PDP has gone to court, I also know the candidate of APGA has equally gone to court. But for me, I didn’t consider it necessary to go to court, because I know where my problems originated from. It started with the national chairman of my own party who preferred another candidate. So, I shouldn’t be fooling myself by going to stand in the court and saying, I’m challenging the victory. I don’t behave like
that.
