By joshua 
Edo Labour Party In Crisis; As Acting Committee Chairman Is Suspended Over Insubordination
FROM IKHILI EBALU, BENIN CITY
Few weeks after a caretaker committee was sworn in by the national leadership of Labour Party (LP), to take over affairs of the party in Edo State, the acting Chairman of the committee, Hon. (Mrs.) Elizabeth Ativie, has been suspended over alleged gross misconduct and insubordination.
The decision was taken at an enlarged meeting of the State Working Committee (SWC) which was attended by local governments area chairmen and secretaries of the party.
The development is coming less than one week after she was sworn-in as caretaker chairman of LP in the state by the national leadership of the party.
Chairman of the LP in Ativie’s Uhunmwonde LGA, Mr. Aghedo Okhiongbamwonyi, said the leadership of her ward 4 had handed out the suspension.
Okhiongbamwonyi presented a letter dated May 4, 2024 which conveyed embattled Ativie’s suspension to the leadership of LP in the LGA.
The letter was endorsed by Charles Usiesefe and Mike Ighile, the ward chairman and secretary respectively.
In the letter, the party leadership cautioned her to restrain from holding out or parading herself as member of LP.
Besides, a letter dated May 30, 2024 which affirmed her suspension by the local government was tendered before the enlarged meeting of the SWC.
Her alleged suspension might not be unconnected with the confusion that ensued at a stakeholders meeting organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), where Ativie and Kelly Ogbaloi both claimed to be chairman of Edo Labour Party.
In a swift response, however, Ativie said she remains the authentic state chairman of Edo Labour Party and that she was not aware 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.