The post-election crisis that hit the Labour Party, (LP) which emerged the Third Force in the recently concluded 2023 General Election continues to fester, instead of abating.
Attempts to get the suspended Chairman, Comrade Julius Abure, reinstated as the Chairman of the party failed as the High Court, Federal Capital Territory, has fixed May 12 to decide on whether or not to lift the suspension order placed on him and other officials of the party.
Justice Hamza Muazu fixed the date after taking arguments and objections from various counsels on the matter.
On April 5, the court had, upon an ex parte application, restrained Abure, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim (National Secretary); Oluchi Opara (National Treasurer); and Clement Ojukwu (National Organising Secretary), from further parading themselves as officials of the party.
Also, on Monday, April 17, Justice Muazu refused to vacate the interim order restraining Abure and the other officials from further parading themselves as national officers of the Labour Party.
This followed a suit challenging the suspended chairman and his co-defendants’ continued stay in office on grounds of alleged fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Abure and his co-defendants in their preliminary objections maintained that the suit bordered on a leadership crisis.
They therefore argued through their counsel, Ben Nwosu, that the matter was an internal affair of the party and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
It would also be recalled that the National Executive Council of the party met last Tuesday in Asaba, the Delta State capital as part of efforts to resolve the crisis in the party.
The meeting, which was attended by members of the National Working Committee, also had the state chairmen and secretaries of the party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, in attendance.
The Asaba meeting was also attended by the party’s National Assembly members-elect, officials of INEC, those of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress, according to the statement.
The statement issued at the end of the meeting said the NEC reaffirmed and upheld the decision of the Akure convention which expelled its former publicity secretary, Mr Arabambi Abayomi.
“NEC considered the disciplinary committee’s report which recommended the suspension of the former Youth Leader, Mr Anslem Eragbe and recommended him for expulsion at the next national convention.
“Pending the next convention, NEC suspends Eragbe indefinitely.
“NEC also suspended the following National Working Committee (NWC) members: Lamidi Apapa, Alhaji Salem Lawal, Favour Reuben, Gbenga Daramola, Samuel Akingbade and Mohammed Akali,’’ the statement also read.
It added that the NEC constituted a disciplinary committee comprising the National Youth Leader, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, and Acting National Legal Adviser, Mr. Edun Kehinde, as members.
It listed other members as the Acting Deputy National Secretary, Mr Rotimi Kehinde and the National Vice Chairman South-South MR Anthony Ezeagwu.
The NEC said it critically evaluated the 2023 general election and noted INEC’s failure to transmit election results in real-time from polling units, which it said gave room for massive manipulation of results.
The statement condemned electoral violence and the use of security agencies to intimidate voters and perpetrate other crimes in parts of the country.
“NEC noted the resilience, and doggedness of our presidential candidate and its resolve to legitimately reclaim its mandate in court.
“NEC accordingly calls on the judiciary to do the right thing irrespective of whose ox is gored,’’ the statement also read. It stressed its implicit confidence in Mr. Julius Abure-led National Working Committee.
The National Working Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party last Tuesday suspended Apapa for “anti-party activities, contravening the constitution of the party and running of parallel leadership and putting the party in total disrepute,” following an order by an Abuja High Court restraining Julius Abure from parading himself as the LP’s national chairman.
Following the order, Apapa, who was the party’s deputy national chairman (South), declared himself national chairman.
But, speaking on the outcome of the NEC meeting which suspended him, Apapa said his suspension was invalid, saying that Abure did not have the legal backing to convey the NEC meeting of the party.
Apapa said his rejection by officials of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) was due to the lack of knowledge of the party’s history and the roles he played.
He said, “I was not suspended. I was not invited to the NEC meeting. They think that I was not supposed to be there. As of today, I’m the only legitimate acting national chairman of the party.
“I’m not struggling with Abure. I’m there in an acting capacity. The constitution of the party is so clear on this, that for whatever reason if the national chairman is unable to perform his role, the deputy takes over. That is exactly what has happened.
“Nobody is sponsoring me. Nobody has suspended me. I remain the acting national chairman of the party. I maintain that.”
Speaking on the crisis, the Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Akin Osuntokun, blamed the judiciary for the crisis rocking the party after the 2023 general elections.
Osuntokun said that the judgment by Justice Muazu ordering the party’s chairman, Julius Abure and other national executives of the party to stop parading themselves as national officers of the party created the crisis currently engulfing the party.
He said: “There is nothing going on (in the Labour Party) other than the crisis of the judiciary. It is a judge, the judiciary that made a judgement that is now responsible for creating a crisis in the Labour Party.
“It was a judge here, who in his discretion, said that Abure, who has been chairman for the primaries of the presidential, for the governorship, for the state Houses of Assembly should stop parading himself as chairman of the party.
“A judge, thereafter, gave a judgment that the chairman should no longer parade himself as a chairman. What do you make of that? And look at who and who brought the case before him.
“The judge is a Nigerian, he reads newspapers like the rest of us and he could have taken a more logical position on what was brought before him. Does it mean that if a clerk in the Labour Party brings a complaint before you, you can give a judgment on the basis of that?”
Osuntokun maintained that the judge had the option of allowing the chairman of the party to remain in his position and go on with the case, but he chose an option that shows he was “setting the party up for crisis.”
