A State High Court in Edo dismissed the order of expulsion against Julius Abure, the Labour Party’s embattled national chairman, on Friday. The notice had been issued by certain party members at the ward level.
Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje, the court, dismissed the case on Friday (May 26, 2023) because it lacked merit.
This was made known in a statement released on Friday (May 26, 2023) in Abuja by the party’s acting national publicity secretary, Obiora Ifoh, who also revealed that Abure and the executives of LP Ward 3 in Esan North East, Edo State, filed the case.
Aihamoje ruled that the party ward executive in Uromi in ward 3 lacked the authority required by the Labour Party Constitution, in particular Acts 13 & 17 and the Electoral Act of 2022, as amended, to depose the party’s national chairperson in his nearly two-hour-long decision.
In order to prevent Lamidi Apapa and his side from ousting or suspending Abure as the national chairman until a new national convention of the party is called, the judge in Suit No. HUC/21/2023 went ahead and issued a perpetual injunction.
Aihamoje added that the alleged Wards 3 executive’s decision to suspend the party’s national chairperson was made beyond the bounds of its authority under the Labour Party Constitution.
Thompson Ehiguese, the chairman of the Labour Party for Ward 3, responded to the decision by telling reporters present at the courthouse that it had put a stop to swindlers posing as Labour Party members in the ward.
He said, “These charlatans claiming to be members of our party are from Edo North and members of APC. I want to use this medium to congratulate the Labour Party and the Obidient Movement that stood firmly with Comrade Julius Abure while the sponsored crisis in our great party lasted.
“The judgement is explicitly clear that Barrister Julius Abure remains the national Chairman until the party convention holds next year. Nothing can change our collective resolve to reclaim Nigerian masses’ mandate freely given to Mr Peter Obi and the party in the last presidential election.
For his side, Apapa and his section have been certified by the court to be “tragic power seekers,” according to Kelly Ogbaloi, chairman of the Edo State Labour Party.
“Apapa, who before then was a deputy national chairman and a custodian of the constitution of the party, knew that the act of those who came to Abuja to announce the suspension of the national chairman was not doing so legally, since the action was an aberration to the provisions of the party’s constitution, instead, he ran to the court, seeking ex-parte motion to restrain the national chairman.
He said, “Today they have been basically told that the charade can no longer be entertained by the court”.
When approached, Lamidi Apapa’s spokesperson, Abayomi Arabambi, revealed that he intended to speak at a press conference to discuss the decision.
Nothing has been heard from him as of the report’s filing.
