The Labour Party in Lagos State on Thursday announced an indefinite suspension of six of its chieftains, including the immediate past Chairman, Mr Kayode Salako, over alleged anti-party and disparaging activities in the just-concluded elections.
The LP Secretary in the state, Mr Sam Okpala, disclosed this at a news conference at the party Secretariat in Ikeja in Lagos.
Okpala listed the suspended leaders to include: Mr Moshood Salvador (LP Senatorial Candidate, Lagos West), Mr Mutiu Okunola (House of Ikeja Rep. Candidate), and Messrs Theodore Ezeunara, Mr Olumide Adesoyin and Opeyemi Taiwo.
Okpala said that the suspension followed the party’s reception and ratification of the report of the Disciplinary Committee set us to investigate the acts of anti-party activities leveled against the leaders.
Explaining that the decision was taken during the State Working Committee meeting heid on March 31, Okpala said that the affected leaders had been found culpable of acts inimical to the progress of LP.
He said: “Labour Party in Lagos State discovered that there were a lot of anti-party activities committed by people who claimed to be members of the party in Lagos State.
“Our post-mortem of what really transpired and happened during the general elections revealed that a lot of people who called themselves members of the party were indeed working for the opposition.
“With that information, the LP in Lagos State set up a disciplinary committee headed by one of the deputy chairman of the party to look into these allegations.
“As an obedient party that adheres to the rule of law, the committee gave everyone involved a fair hearing and opportunity to defend themselves and clear their names.
“At the end of the exercise, the report was tendered before the LP State Working Committee and at the meeting held on March 31 at the Party Secretariat, the report of the Disciplinary Committee was accepted and ratified for implementation.”
He said that out of the seven chieftains, involved, one, Mr Sunbo Onitiri, said he had resigned his membership of the party before engaging in anti-party.
“In obedience to the relevant sections of our constitution, the party took the decision to suspend them from being members of the party with immediate effects.
“The essence is to serve a deterrence to others who may want to toe that inglorious path again,” he added.
Okpala, who noted that the punishment was to serve and deterrence to others, said that the party could not accept having enemies within its fold.
The scribe decried that the affected officers openly demonstrated solidarity and preference to work and for the candidates of All Progressives Congress (APC) during the polls.
According to him, the affected leaders have consistently been disparaging/ denigrating the image of the party candidates as well as the state leadership of the party without decorum.
He said that their actions had brought LP to disrepute, hence the suspension with immediate effect.
Okpala commended Lagos residents and Nigerians for believing in the LP’s vision and philosophy of bringing about a new Nigeria and for supporting the party in the Feb. 25 and March 18 elections.
On the national leadership crisis of the party, Okpala said that the Lagos State Chapter would continue to stand with its LP National Chairman, Mr Julius Abure and other national officers.
He said that Court ex parte order, restraining the LP National Chairman and five other National Officers of the party from parading themselves as leaders of the party, was the handiwork of detractors who wanted to detract the party from the mission to reclaim the party’s alleged stolen mandate.
“We do not want to give in to such cheap detraction. We want to pass a vote of confidence on our National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure and other leaders of the party. They have done so much for the party.
“This is not the time for this detraction. The leaders have committed all they got to the success of the Labour Party,” he said.
The event was attended LP State Working Committee members in the state.
