Court Bars National Chairman, Abure, Secretary, Others From Parading As Leaders

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The Labour Party crisis has further deepened as a Federal Capital Territory High Court has barred the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure and National Secretary, Farouk Ibrahim from parading themselves as national leaders of the party.

Also restrained by the court from parading themselves as the national officers of the Labour Party are the National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu and Treasurer, Oluchi Opara.

However, the national headquarters of the party had earlier rejected Abure’s suspension, saying some spurious allegations were made against Abure.

The statement issued by the national headquarters of the party rejecting Abure’s suspension read,

“We think that the sudden suspension was an afterthought of some opposition parties purely to distract the leadership of the Labour Party at this time.

“There is no reasonable party member at this point in time who will be thinking of such a thing when we are pursuing our presidential mandate in the court and all other mandates including the governorship, Senate and House of Representatives that were brazenly stolen.

“Who will be contemplating the suspension of any national party official at this point in time? It is on record that for the first time in the history of the party, the Abure-led leadership has succeeded to change the political narratives in the country.

“A party from the blues competing with the top two political parties and in the process, winning eight Senate and 34 House of Representatives as well as numerous House of Assembly seats. We also won a governorship seat while we are in court to retrieve other mandates including the presidency.”

But Channels TV reports that Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court issued the restraining order while ruling in an ex-parte application argued by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, James Onoja.

Onoja in the application told the court that the restrained Labour Party national leaders allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court to carry out unlawful substitutions in the last general elections.

According to him, the forged documents include the receipts, seals and affidavits of the court to carry out “criminal activities”.

Onoja, who reportedly tendered several documents to the court confirmed to the Judge that the Chief Registrar of the Court wrote the Labour Party to disown several documents used for the alleged criminal activities by Abure and three others.

He further told the court that following their indictment by a police investigation, the four people are to be arraigned in court.

He added that warrants for their arrest had already been obtained.

Justice Muazu in his ruling held that the application and the supporting affidavits are a good case for the request to be granted and therefore ordered that Abure and the three others should immediately desist from parading themselves as national officers of the Labour Party.