Maria Labake, a former acting national chairperson of the Labour Party (LP), has accused Julius Abure of forging her signature many times.

Abure currently serves as the national chairman of the party, which sponsored Peter Obi as its presidential candidate in the 2023 election.

Labake stated that Abure forged her signature and also unconstitutionally removed her from office in 2021. She said this while appearing on AriseTV’s News Day on Friday.

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“Those cheques that were forged, I did not know about them. I heard about them through the television, where they mentioned my name,” said Labake.

“The treasurer accused him of forging checks, which I didn’t know about. My signature was not changed immediately I entered the office. From February 7 until March, when my signature was perfected, I was not a signatory to that account (the party’s account).

“On the 28th of March, we had a NEC meeting (National Executive Council) where Julius Abure said I should step down as acting national chairman so that he could take over. Then I rejected it.

“At the meeting on 29th, he stood up in the middle of the meeting. He collected the microphone from me to preside over the meeting and I dragged the mic from him. There was a tussle between him and me about the microphone until he later allowed me to address the NEC.

“After I finished talking, he talked. Someone arose from the audience and said that the best thing was to remove me as acting chairman for him (Abure) to take over. I was then dragged out of the seat as the chairman and Abure sat there.

“After that, he brought out some documents. He told me that the reason why he put up the meeting in his home state (Edo State) was because he had a monopoly of thugs. Immediately after the meeting, he removed me, pushed me out of my seat and he came and sat on it. I was intimidated.

“He brought out some documents. I was surrounded by so many thugs. I was under duress to sign many documents, which I could not proofread at that moment.

“After that day, I left for my state. There was a Sienna car pursuing me bumper-to-bumper along Benin-Abuja road until I reached one police station and I alerted the police. When they came, the police stopped them and they had to go back.

“On the following day, I was called to come and change my signature as a signatory to the account, which I rejected. But he forged my signature because there was no way he could have effected his own signature without my person signing out of that account.

“He used to forged my signature to write a letter to INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) to tell them that I had resigned as the acting national chairman, which I did not do. All those things, I did not do them.

“Ever since then, I have left everything in God’s hands. I just kept quiet until this issue of forgery, where they mentioned my name, came up.”

In response to a question on whether she shared the issues with the appropriate quarters within the party, she said she did.

“Yes. Immediately after we came back from that meeting, he formed a disciplinary committee that they should expel me from the party. I went to the Nigerian Labour Congress, which registered that party,” said Labake,

“That party was registered in 2002. The people that formed that party were from different unions. I came from the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees and I retired as a director in that office. I was one of the founding members of that party. I was the first national treasurer. When I reported to them, they took it up and wrote a letter to INEC to condemn that particular meeting that brought in Abure and Farouk as national chairman and secretary.

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“Immediately after the meeting, he broke in to my office and carted away my personal belongings, some cash in my office and some documents. Even as I am talking to you, I still have the key to that old office. I never went back to that office.”

Labake, who acted as the head of the party for three months after the death of Abdulkadir Abdulsalam on December 29, 2020, also endorsed the call for a thorough investigation of all the issues raised against the leadership of the party in the last few days.

FIJ had reported that the party suspended Oluchi Oparah, the national treasurer, a few days after she accused Abure of signature forgery and mismanagement of N3.5 billion of the party’s funds.