THERE appears to be no end in sight to the crisis bedevilling the Labour Party as supporters of the two factions laying claim to its leadership continue to engage each other in a war of words.
The dispute was taken a nudge higher yesterday when both factions continued their struggle for the control of the National Secretariat, situated in Utako, Abuja.
It took the intervention of security operatives, including private security guards engaged to secure the building, to prevent a verbal altercation from degenerating into a free for all.
Supporters of the National Chairman, Comrade Julius Abure, and members of the National Working Committee, NWC, loyal to him had arrived at the secretariat for a meeting and possible screening of governorship aspirants for Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi elections.
They barely settled down to business when the factional acting national chairman, Lamidi Apapa, arrived with his supporters in tow for the same exercise.
However, they were prevailed upon to step back, following the intervention of security operatives.
Soon afterwards, a spokesperson of Forum of LP state chairmen, High Chief Rotimi Kehinde, who spoke to journalists after the encounter, explained that they came to conduct screening of governorship aspirants for Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states but were denied entry into the secretariat.
Rotimi, who is the chairman of the Kwara State chapter of the party, is an Abure loyalist, said the Apapa-led faction that screened some aspirants on Tuesday, lacked the powers to perform the task.
He said: “I do not know how they manipulated one or two aspirants to come here yesterday (Tuesday).
“We wanted to hold a meeting and we discovered it was under lock and key. We met some DSS men and some vigilante groups…and they said they were told to lock the secretariat.
“In the course of discussing that, the illegal committee led by Apapa came around and were trying to engage us, and their thugs were almost attacking us.
“We resisted every temptation to cause commotion and crisis because we know the case is in court; anything in court you don’t discuss it and we don’t want to commit contempt of court.
The spokesperson, who further explained that the matter was already in court, expressed confidence that the court order would soon be vacated.
He said: “When you accuse someone of an offence, especially a criminal offence, the person must be heard according to section 36 of the Nigerian constitution.
