FROM IKHILI EBALU, BENIN CITY
Few weeks after a caretaker committee was sworn in by the national leadership of Labour Party, LP, to take over the affairs of the party in Edo State, Acting Chairman of the committee, Mrs Elizabeth Ativie, has been suspended over alleged misconduct and insubordination.
The decision was taken at an enlarged meeting of the State Working Committee, SWC, which was attended by local government chairmen and secretaries of the party.
Chairman of the party in Ativie’s Uhunmwonde Local Government Area, Mr Aghedo Okhiongbamwonyi said the leadership of her Ward 4 handed out the suspension.
Okhiongbamwonyi presented a letter dated May 4 which conveyed Ativie’s suspension to the leadership of the party in the local government.
The letter, signed by Charles Usiesefe and Mike Ighile, the ward chairman and secretary, respectively, said the party’s leadership cautioned her to refrain from parading herself as a member of LP.
Besides, a letter dated May 30 which affirmed her suspension by the local government, was tendered before the enlarged meeting of the SWC.
Her alleged suspension might not be unconnected with the confusion that ensued at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, where Ativie and Kelly Ogbaloi both claimed to be Chairman of Labour Party.
In a swift response, however, Ativie said she remains the authentic state chairman of the party and that she is not aware of any meeting where she was suspended.
“It is dead on arrival; I am the current chairman in Edo State.
“They should know that by the constitution of Labour Party, no ward or local government chairman has the authority to suspend anybody or the chairman,” she said.
