Court declines vacating order suspending Abure, others, as embattled chairman storms party secretariat in Abuja
Crisis rocking the leadership of the Labour Party (LP) deepened Monday as a Federal High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sitting in Abuja, declined vacating an order suspending the National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure, along with three other executive members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), in a suit challenging the original order.
Justice Hamza Muazu, in a ruling on Monday, April 17, rejected the request by the lawyer to Abure and others, Alex Ejesieme (SAN), for the vacation of the order made on Wednesday, April 5.
The suspension of Abure and three others followed the resolution by the some Ward executice committee members in Edo to suspend Abure over alleged corruption, which the court relied on in effecting the suspension in a suit brought by some members of the party’s NWC.
The breakaway faction has since appointed Lamidi Apapa as its National Chairman, despite its action receiving tacit support of the greater membership of the party.
Already, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the 36 state chairmen of the party have pledged to remain loyal to the embattled Abure, a move which saw the chieftain march to the party’s secretariat in Abuja, Monday, and took over the complex.
They had earlier, last week, prevented the Apapa-led faction from accessing the building.
Abure was suspended along with the National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim; National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara; and the National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu over alleged anti-party activities, and corruption by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Meanwhile, declining a request to vacate the order, Justice Muazu ordered that the restraining order, made ex-parte, shall subsist, pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice for interlocutory injunctions.
Justice Hamza Muazu also ordered that the originating processes of the court be served on Abure and others.
The embattled Abure is also facing charges of forgery, conspiracy and perjury after police investigation on alleged forged signatures of party’s candidates who won party primaries and their tickets were swapped with other persons indicted them.
