The financial crisis and allegations of forgery against the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, are escalating in Nigeria. The suspended National Treasurer, Oluchi Oparah, has brought Abure and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to court, urging the court to compel the anti-graft body to investigate the national chairman. She also urged the court to quash her six months suspension by the party as she was not given a fair hearing before being suspended by the party leadership. A former acting national chairman, Maria Lebeke, has corroborated Oparah’s allegations by accusing Abure of forging her signature when she acted as national chairman after then leader, Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, died in December 2020. However, the plight of Abure worsened yesterday as chairmen of the party across the 36 states unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in him and asked him to step down with immediate effect.Oparah wrote a letter to the EFCC requesting a formal petition against the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, for several grievous offences bordering on forgery, embezzlement of the 3rd Defendant’s funds, and abuse of office and failure to account for the 3rd Defendant’s funds at his disposal. She stated that the most grievous act of impropriety by the 2nd Defendant pertains to his forgery of the signature of the late Alhaji Abdulsalam, 61 days after Abdulsalam’s death with which he withdrew monies from the account of the defendant.
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