Darlington Nwokocha is a former senator, who represented Abia Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly and a member of the Labour Party. In this interview, he speaks on the crisis rocking the party, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

How does it feel to be suspended from your party and what is this farce that is going on in the Labour Party?

I’m not being suspended. First and foremost, the issue presently in Labour Party is that the former chairman, who was is supposed to the understand the constitution of the party and the Electoral Act, has refused to sit down to study his books. When you fail to do that and you start running without understanding the powers of the regulator over you, you may end up over-speeding your limit.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) came out at a particular point in time and said ‘Julius Abure you’re not qualified again because your term has expired.’ He went to court of the first instance and the court for whatever reason said he is qualified.

INEC again came and said that it went to court and the court ruled that Abure is not qualified for obvious reasons. We have looked at the records; looking at 2023, when his term expired, an extension of one year was given and at the end of the day, he now went ahead and said he is still qualified.

He organised a convention somewhere. But there is difference between a convention and a meeting. A convention has to be organised by the people from the ward to the national convention and he never did. So, INEC said no, there are rudiments, there are qualifications you must meet before we recognise you.

He said no. After the appeal, we said that it didn’t go well because it is very clear. We said no, let’s go to Supreme because we are law-abiding people, we are very procedural. Why do we need to start fighting on the street. We went to the Supreme Court and the court clearly defined it. I’m surprised that some people are saying it’s not definitive enough.

I want to read out something for you, just briefly. If you go to page 47 of this particular voluminous document, it said in summary that both the trial court and the appellate court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit of this first respondent, which means relief as they both rightly observed was inserted as relief number five as though it was an appendage.

Consequent upon the foregoing, the decision of both the trial and appellate courts recognising his name was mentioned clearly unlike other decisions. The judge went further and said as the national chairman of the respondent, I hereby set aside. When something is set aside, what does that mean? It’s gone.

The argument of the other side is that the Supreme Court itself said it does not have jurisdiction and that it returns it to the party to sort out its problems…

I don’t want us to isolate this because if you isolate jurisdiction alone, it then means you are giving it a very different definition. But I’m coming to that because Abure’s name is being mentioned here.

Nobody mentioned anything that has to do with Nenadi Usman. His name was directly mentioned and his position mentioned. Why is this so? It has to be this way because by the time they say refer back, it means you can’t put something on nothing.

You have been asked to move because you are not qualified to be there, your tenure has expired. because I’m coming to that. If you read the judgement, you will see where it was stated that Abure is not qualified because his tenure has expired.

Now, when your attendant has expired and you have been asked to leave, what that means is that there is another body that should now decide what happens in the party. That body is the National Executive Committee (NEC). It is just like when a situation is dead, nothing moves on again.

I remember during Goodluck Jonathan; what happened? When there was need for a necessity, the Doctrine of Necessity came up. The party is just like a human being. Now, since this man is not there, there are people that are statutorily saddled with the responsibility of running the party.

Abure’s camp is saying that the Supreme Court made it clear that party disputes should be settled internally by the people who are eligible but the question is who are those people that are eligible?

I don’t want us to just make a phrase by the people that are eligible. Remember that this section had already asked him to step aside.

You are no more qualified because you are not eligible. Now, you have to come back again, which and which people, because it’s not the National Working Committee alone.

In the final analysis, this same judgement to be meritorious. When something is meritorious, what does that mean?

So, when somebody says, and on their own, they now give an advice, please, you people should understand, any leader at all, we don’t want this country to be moving forward, back and forth.

The party does not belong to Abure or ourselves; it belongs to the people. You can’t go somewhere and organise a convention without properly electing people at the grassroots

Any person that is still not expressed, who are they referring to? In the same judgement, should leave that whatever, and allow people that are eligible.

Let me go back to that. Who are those people that are eligible? Apart from the National Working Committee, where Abure belongs, you have another arm, apart from the National Convention, which is at the topmost part of it, the next one is the NEC. Remember that he’s no more qualified to be a member of the NEC.

Now, who are the people that are qualified to be a member of the NEC? In our constitution, which I will still give you a copy, because I want you people to study it. I came with all those things for you to study. One, you talk about now the chairman of the party and the deputy vice chairman is no more there.

Is there provision in your party’s constitution for a caretaker committee? Why do I have to make all those analogies? Was Doctrine of Necessity in our constitution before that time?

You cannot allow a system that has been alive to just end abruptly like that. There must be need, because if there are remnants of people that are still alive, that their functionality will drive the entire process.

I wonder why you should allow it to drive, because one, there are people that are statutorily mandated. Even if we say that we’re going back to a national convention, there are people, whether you like it or not, statutorily they are supposed to be there, the governor, the deputy, and the elected members, senators and whatever.

When the situation comes like that, you have to call the leaders, the real leaders of the party, and sit down because when they are going to convention, these people must feature in the convention. These are statutory members.

They will feature in that election. So, since there is a problem, and the process is almost dead, because the man that has been at the helm of affairs is dead in terms of administration, what next, you won’t allow it to die like that.

Those that have the statutory mandate to drive the process will come back and say, please, INEC, which is the body regulates and monitors everything, what do we do? I INEC now said you cannot die like that.

Go back and get us, people who will now drive this process based on the premise that they will transmute like what Abure wanted to do. He didn’t start the process from ward to the national convention but come up to be the national chairman.

I don’t have any interest being the secretary of the party likewise Senator Nenadi. We have moved on. We have our timetables already and we have given that to INEC and the commission has accepted it. We are making progress with process.

We want to start our congresses, because that is the problem. The party does not belong to Abure or ourselves, it belongs to the people. You can’t go somewhere and organise a convention without properly electing people at the grassroots.

Who is in charge of the Labour Party?

That is why it is called democracy. There are processes for you to achieve any particular setting. If a jungle, where you go and shoot somebody, that’s a different thing. There’s a process to all these things.

Some have suggested that a lot of this problem is aimed at frustrating your party and that it is externally induced. Is that your belief?

It’s possible because we have watched all this and said, why must this man do this because at a point we told him: Why don’t you allow yourself to pass through the process?

For me, I don’t want to be one of the functionaries during the convention. I don’t want to contest. And they would not like to contest.

So, why don’t you say that or you allow yourself and pass through the democratic process and now face the election if you win, so be it.

That is the problem because there is no way you just come out one day and now you say that you have done a convention. Do you know the meaning of convention? There are certain ingredients that must feature for you to say, this is an effective convention.