On Monday, operatives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command arrested and detained the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure.
Gatekeepers News reports that Abure’s arrest followed a criminal complaint against him by a governorship aspirant in the 2023 election for Plateau State, Yohanna Margif, who accused Abure of forgery.
This has, however, become a trend as Margif was not the first LP aspirant/candidate who accused Abure of forging his signature.
According to Margif, the LP National Chairman signed a letter on his behalf – indicating his withdrawal from the governorship primaries.
In early 2023, the Chairman of the Labour Party (“LP”) in Ebonyi State, Splendour Oko-Eze, emerged as the Party’s Governorship candidate when guber primaries were held for last year’s election in the State.
Subsequently, Edward Nkwegu joined the party, intending to run for governor on the platform of LP.
Many party faithful in the State believed that Nkwegu was planted by the then governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, to avoid the Peter Obi tsunami sweeping through Eastern Nigeria at the time, prevent victory for LP in the guber polls and ensure victory for Umahi’s anointed candidate and eventual successor, Francis Nwifuru.
Reports alleged that Nkwegu’s entry into LP and ultimate emergence as the party’s flag bearer was mandated to Abure by the then governor, Umahi.
Abure, after allegedly receiving N200m, masterminded the emergence of Nkwegu as LP’s substantive guber candidate in Ebonyi State to deliver said mandate.
For emphasis’s sake, the alleged money received is just, by the way, compared to the series of alleged forgeries that followed Enugu’s case.
The LP National Chairman allegedly forged the signature of Splendour Oko-Eze and proceeded to submit a counterfeit withdrawal letter and processes to substitute Oko-Eze for Nkwegu as Ebonyi Governorship candidate at INEC.
Oko-Eze, after coming to the know of this, filed a petition to the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police at the time, Kayode Egbetokun (now IGP).
According to reports, Abure was invited many times by the Police, but he told many lies to cover himself, claiming he was part of Peter Obi’s campaign train.
Abure continued to evade the invitation of the Police until he was arrested and he was taken at gunpoint in Abuja.
To buttress the allegations, Nkwegu confirmed to the Police that he indeed paid Abure N200m to secure the LP guber ticket but had no knowledge of or hand in the forgery of Oko-Eze’s signature.
The former Ebonyi LP chairman, Oko-Eze, proceeded to court, where Abure was found guilty of forging his signature. Oko-Eze then secured a court order for Abure’s arrest. He also challenged Nkwegu’s emergence and was declared the rightful candidate by the Supreme Court, which ultimately destroyed the party’s ticket, leading to Nwifuru’s victory at the 2023 Ebonyi guber polls.
Following this, Police officers from the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) began to trail Abure.
A source in the party once revealed that the FCID had once tracked Abure to a new generation bank in Abuja to execute his arrest, while his chief detail, a DSS officer, obstructed the Police from arresting Abure, leading to a gun-point face-off the two security operatives.
His chief detail sped him off the scene and drove him straight to DSS HQ, Abuja as they attempted to evade arrest.
After the whole incident, the FCID forgery investigation was concluded and the case file was forwarded to the Attorney General of the Federation (“AGF”) for further processing. The FCID investigation recommended the AGF charge and prosecute Julius Abure for forgery.
This recommendation was made despite alleging tens of millions paid by the LP National Chairman, to bribe some of the police officers overseeing the investigation as well as the FCID legal department.
Further reports alleged that Abure has also spent tens of millions, bribing officers in the AGF’s office to suppress the case and prevent it from going to court.
Nevertheless, the case file is still in the AGF’s office, and currently on the desk of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice.
Meanwhile, an LP House of Representatives aspirant for Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde federal constituency in the 2023 general election in Edo State, Murphy Imasuen, had accused Abure of forging his signature in similar circumstances.
The Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), which investigated the matter, recommended that Abure be prosecuted after it was confirmed by the Chief Registrar of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The general public, therefore, awaits legal action to cub this trend from resurfacing through the accused or any other public.
