LP Crisis: Apapa’s Faction Insists Abure Remains Suspended, Rejects High Court Judgement

The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party (LP) National Working Committee (NWC) has insisted that the National Chairman of the Party, Julius Abure remained suspended, rejecting the ruling of the Edo State High Court.

Naija News recalls that some Labour Party members at the ward level had issued a notice of suspension to Abure.

However, the Edo High Court judge, Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje, threw away the case on Friday for lacking merit.

At the court session, which reportedly lasted about two hours on Friday, Aihamoje said that the party ward executive in Uromi in Ward 3 lacked the power under the LP constitution, particularly Act 13 & 17 and the Electoral Act 2022, as amended to remove the national chairman of the party.

Therefore, the judge in Suit No: HUC/21/2023 imposed a perpetual injunction against Lamidi Apapa and his faction from removing or suspending Abure as the national chairman until a new national convention of the party is convened.

But addressing journalists in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the Apapa faction, Dr. Abayomi Arabambi, said that the claim that an Edo State High court had restored Julius Abure as National Chairman was unacceptable.

According to Arabambi, the Labour Party wouldn’t have dignified what he described as a “beer parlour response” laced with deliberate falsehood or considered it necessary to react to such distortion of facts.

The expelled LP spokesperson said: “We just received a judgment of the Edo State High Court today in which the court set aside the suspension of Julius Abure as a member of its ward pursuant to Article 10 (2)(I) of the Labour Party Constitution by the Ward Executive.

“The effect of this judgment would have just merely restored Abure’s membership of the party since he is still restrained from parading himself as National officer of the party.

“Unfortunately, NEC, which is the highest organ of the party, in its meeting held in Bauchi on the 3rd of May, 2023, further suspended Abure and some other members of the party for attending an illegal NEC meeting purportedly called by Julius Abure while the restraining Order of the FCT High was still subsisting.

“The implication of the suspension of Abure by NEC in Bauchi makes today’s judgment a mere academic exercise as NEC, which is the highest Order of the party, had already suspended Abure and his cohorts. Simply put, by virtue of the restraining Order of the FCT High Court which is yet to be vacated or set aside, Abure still remains restrained.

“Also, by virtue of the NEC suspension of Abure, pursuant to its power under Article 13(2)(b)(Iv) of the Labour Party Constitution in the Bauchi, Abure remains suspended.

“The whole world is aware that Mr Allex Ijetieme SAN on Friday, May 12th, 2023 filed an appeal against the decision of the FCT high court which ordered the suspension and restraining of Julius Abure and three others from parading themselves as National officers pending the determination of the originating summon and motion on notice.

“Question begging for an answer is when a matter is before a court of Appeal, Can any junior court sit or adjudicate on such a matter again until the appeal court decides otherwise?

“The answer is Negative. Therefore the Edo state high court judgment is an exercise in futility, null and void as the subject matter is already a subject of appeal before the Court of Appeal Abuja.

“Labour Party wishes to advise Mr Allex Ijetieme SAN to tread the path of caution with this judicial rascality else we shall petition the Legal Practitioner Disciplinary Committee of the NBA so that punitive measures can be taken against him for spreading deliberate falsehood against the judiciary.”