TheCable

The house of representatives caucus of the Labour Party (LP) has tackled Obiora Ifoh, national publicity secretary of the party, for saying the lawmakers have failed in representing the people who voted them into office.

BACKGROUND

Last week, the LP caucus called for postponement of the party’s national convention “for proper planning”.

The lawmakers also said they were not carried along in the processes leading to the choice of date and venue for the convention.

Reacting, Ifoh in a statement warned the lawmakers against rushing to the press on matters relating to internal affairs of the party.

He also said the lawmakers have failed in representing the people who voted them into office.

However, Edward Dibiana, media aide to Afam Ogene, leader of the LP caucus in the house of representatives, said Ifoh failed to respond to the observations raised by the lawmakers concerning the planned convention.

“Ifoh claimed that the caucus was informed about the convention, but it would be good for him to support such allegation with any official document, communicating same to the lawmakers. A side gossip and official communication are never the same,” Dibiana said.

“It is also very insensitive and disappointing for Ifoh, who was only hurriedly brought in to fill in a gap in an acting capacity to dismiss the call for ‘proper planning and wider consultations’, by the Labour Reps as ‘a mischief taken too far’.

“One of the distinguishing factors between a trained, ready and independent mind and someone who refuses to rise to the occasion even when opportunity comes on a platter, is public conduct.

“For instance, as Leader of the Labour Caucus in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ogene needs to balance the strategic interests of his constituents, his colleagues in the House and other Stakeholders, whilst Ifoh only owes responsibility to his paymasters, for whom he solely functions as a destructive agent against the party and its stakeholders, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who he also attacked recently.

“Was it not the same Ogene who galvanized the caucus members in support of Barrister Julius Abure, when he was arrested and dehumanised like ordinary criminal last month?

“Who would even take the Labour Party seriously when less than two weeks to the unilaterally fixed convention, no planning committee has been empanelled, no delegates have been named, and know one knows who is running for what office, and worse of all, party members remain in the dark? Yet Ifoh and his enablers are fixated only on those they feel are not respecting Abure. Enough of this charade.”