Confusion in Edo LP: One-Week-Old Caretaker Committee Chairman Suspended

Less than a week after being sworn in by the national leadership of the Labour Party (LP) to manage its affairs in Edo State, the Chairman of the caretaker committee, Hon. (Mrs.) Elizabeth Ativie, has been suspended over allegations of gross misconduct and insubordination.

The suspension decision was made at an enlarged meeting of the State Working Committee (SWC), which included local government chairmen and secretaries of the party. The move follows a confusion-laden stakeholders meeting organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), where Ativie and Kelly Ogbaloi both claimed to be the chairman of Edo Labour Party.

According to Mr. Aghedo Okhiongbamwonyi, the chairman of Ativie’s Uhunmwonde local government, the leadership of her ward 4 initiated the suspension. Okhiongbamwonyi presented a letter dated 4th May 2024, signed by Charles Usiesefe and Mike Ighile, the ward chairman and secretary respectively, which communicated Ativie’s suspension to the local government area.

A subsequent letter dated 30th May 2024, confirming her suspension by the local government, was presented at the enlarged SWC meeting. The SWC advised Ativie to refrain from presenting herself as a member of the party.

In response, Ativie asserted her position as the authentic state chairman of the Edo Labour Party and claimed she was unaware of any meeting suspending her. “It is dead on arrival. I am the current state Labour 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.