Abure was again accused of forging the signature of the House of Representatives candidate for Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon federal constituency in Edo State, Murphy Imasuen on a letter to ensure the name of a former House of Assembly Speaker, Elizabeth Uyinmwen Ativie is enlisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The National Chairman of Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure has been accused of forging documents to commit fraud and replace the name of a genuine House of Representatives candidate with that of someone who did not participate in the primary election.
Abure was again accused of forging the signature of the House of Representatives candidate for Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon federal constituency in Edo State, Murphy Imasuen on a letter to ensure the name of a former House of Assembly Speaker, Elizabeth Uyinmwen Ativie is enlisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In September 2022, SaharaReporters reported that Ativie paid millions of Naira to be listed as the Labour Party’s House of Representatives candidate for Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon federal constituency in Edo State, as disclosed by sources in the party.
SaharaReporters reported that Imasuen emerged as the winner of the primary election supervised by INEC officials.
But rather than submit the name of the elected candidate, Imasuen, the name of Ativie who recently joined the party from the ruling All Progressives Congress was submitted to INEC by Labour Party leadership led by Abure.
Section 33 of the 2022 Electoral Act states that a political party cannot remove or substitute a candidate that emerged from a valid primary.
But Section 31 of the Electoral Act allows for substitution when a candidate dies or when they withdraw from the race and inform INEC in writing.
So Abure reportedly forged a letter supposedly from Imasuen, claiming he was withdrawing from the race.
Documents seen by SaharaReporters showed that Ativie contested the APC primary election for the federal constituency but lost to Chief Billy Osawaru. She did not contest the primary election organised by the Labour Party.
Also, in an interview with Arise TV on Saturday, Blessing Agho, a lawyer and Press Secretary to Imasuen, said Ativie paid N12 million in the Zenith Bank account of Abure’s wife to ensure the former Edo Speaker secured the Labour Party’s ticket after her failure to emerge as the APC candidate for her constituency.
She said, “On the 13th day of July, a primary was conducted in Orhionmwon/Uhunmwode Federal Constituency, where our legitimate candidate emerged as the winner of that primary. So few weeks after that primary, a woman, Elizabeth Ativie was going around that it was her name that was submitted to INEC.
“The national chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure, was the person that single-handedly removed the candidate who participated in the primary, Honourable Imasuen Paul Murphy; he removed his name and replaced it with her name. In fact, I have a conversation where she said this – a recorded conversation.
“Of course, our candidate decided to go to court and upon investigation, we found out that they forged a withdrawal letter on behalf of our candidate.
“A constituent primary was conducted on the 13th day of July, 2022 where Honourable Imasuen Paul Murphy emerged as the winner. His name was equally submitted to INEC and INEC published his name, not until Elizabeth met with the national chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, she gave him money.”
“In fact, I have records, and I have scoops to that. 12 million was sent to Julius Abure’s wife account…, Zenith bank account. I have the account (number) here. She gave Abure money and she went about telling people that Abure is removing Imasuen’s name from the list for hers,” she added.
Agho went on to reveal what Imasuen’s team has been doing on the issue, stating that an investigation and pronouncement of the Federal Capital Territory High Court revealed that the letter was forged.
“I tried to put a call through to Elizabeth, myself to ask this thing we were hearing, is it true? And she told me, yes. She met with Abure and Abure asked her for money.
“I went further to hold a meeting with the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure in Benin City. I asked him the same question, that this was what Elizabeth told me. This is a lady who did not participate in the primaries at all. What transpired? What happened that her name was sent to INEC? Abure did not give me a definite answer, he said we should wait till the meeting comes up. And on September 28 when INEC would release the list. “Elizabeth’s name came out on the list, so our candidate took the case to court because his name was already published by INEC before they released the final list in September. So, upon investigation, we found that they forged a withdrawal letter on behalf of Honourable Imasuen Paul Murphy.
“In fact, they went ahead so far … that Honourable Imasuen Paul Murphy wrote that he is no longer interested in the race. So, that it was on that note they were able to suspend his name. Remember that you can only remove a candidate’s name from the INEC list if the candidate is dead or the candidate withdraws from the race. So, they had to forge a withdrawal letter on his behalf, used his signature and submitted it to INEC. So that was the process; they removed his name and replaced it with Elizabeth.
“So, we further took the withdrawal letter and the affidavit to Federal High Court in Abuja. We told them, please authenticate this document because Honourable Imasuen Said he didn't write any withdrawal letter. At the Federal High Court, Abuja, we found that the document is fake, that there is no commissioner of oath’s name on it and there is no revenue receipt number on the document.
“We further took the case to the inspector general of police, to investigate the criminal aspect of the forgery, because yes, we are in court for the civil aspect. The criminal aspect needs to be investigated because Abure does not have to singlehandedly write a letter on behalf of someone else, without the person.”
“We even heard that it was alleged that he did the same thing in one of the states in the east where he even forged an obituary for the candidate, told INEC that the candidate was dead,” she added.
Explaining how people of the constituency were reacting to the issue, she said Ativie’s poor performance as a state lawmaker for over a decade is the reason why the people do not want her to represent them at the national level.
Agho said, “The Edo people are very upset, if you go to my pages, you will see a lot of protests, you will see a lot of videos. In fact, people from Uhunmwode/Orhionmwon federal constituency do not want to have anything to do with Elizabeth because she had spent 12 years before in the House of Assembly, we did not see any impact.”
“You cannot even access her own village, it is not even motorable, it is not even ‘bikeable’. That is the reason a lot of Edo people don't want her. It is also important to note that she had previously participated in APC. And in the newly amended electoral law, you cannot participate in two primaries from two different political parties in the same election year,” she added.
A copy of a letter signed by Lawal Funmilola, Director for Oaths Department in the Office of the Chief Registrar, High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, and addressed to legal practitioners, K. O. Obamagie & Co., is dated November 8, 2022, and titled ‘Re-Request For Verification/Authenticity Of An Affidavit Sworn To At The High Court Of The FCT By Imasuen Paul Murphy On 8th July, 2022’.
The letter sighted by SaharaReporters reads, “I write to inform you that a careful investigation conducted by the Court in respect of the attached copy of letter of voluntary withdrawal bearing the name of Imasuen Paul Murphy dated 8th July, 2022 reveals that the document was not sworn to before a Commissioner for Oath in this Court because there is no name. of the Commissioner for Oath on the said document and also there is no Revenue receipt number.”
“Therefore, the said document did not emanate from our Court,” the document added.
