A former National Treasurer of the Labour Party, Oluchi Opara, has made serious allegations against the factional chairman of the party, Julius Abure.
She claims that Abure forged the party’s late chairman’s signature and transferred money to his wife, siblings, staff, and his personal company’s accounts.
Opara stated that the party had no money when Abure took over as national chairman after the death of A.A. Salam. She explained that two months after Salam’s death, Abure cleared every penny from the party’s account.
Speaking in an interview with News Central on Tuesday, Opara said, “I know I came out sometime in February, like you said, to say that the former national chairman of our party, Barrister Julius Abure has to come out clean to explain what had happened to the finances of the Labour Party, allegations of embezzlement, misappropriation, misapplication of power, and a whole lot of things that I came out to say that time, including the forging of the late national chairman’s signature to withdraw money from an account after he is dead.”
She added, “I was thinking that he should have come out to explain to Nigerians or even allow an external auditor to audit the accounts of the Labour Party, but he has refused to do the needful instead and he is trying to do a campaign against the man, Mr. Peter Obi, who gave him life, because before now, there was no Abure. Before now, the Labour Party was nowhere.”
Opara accused Abure of being ungrateful and trying to divert attention from the campaign fund looting allegation. She challenged him to allow independent auditors to audit the party’s account.
She stated, “So I think he is ungrateful on his part, on his side, to come out to want to damage the image of an icon, political icon that is known to the world, not just to Nigeria. Abure should come out because I say he who must go to equity must come with clean hands.”
Opara also stated that contrary to Abure’s claim that the party was not in charge of the last campaign fund, the party actually was in charge. She explained that the account number shared by a former member of Obi/Datti campaign council, Aisha Yesufu, was the account the party used to receive campaign funds from Nigerians.
When asked to reconfirm that Abure allegedly looted campaign funds of the party, Opara repeated, “I came out that February I said that the late national chairman’s signature was forged two months after his death. Before the passing of the late national chairman A. A. Salam of blessed memory, the party didn’t have any money in the accounts. Then two months after his death monies were cleared by Julius Abure.”
She further explained, “Abure never bothered what the family was going through at that time. And again at that time when I came out I noticed that he was transferring money to his wife’s accounts, to his brother’s account, to his company’s accounts, to everybody even down to the staff of the office.”
Opara concluded, “He should stop pointing accusing finger to Mr. Peter Obi. He should let that account be reactivated so the Nigerians can actually see, to even question him how on earth did the man after his death came out to sign a check for him to clear money from the account.”
