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.
According to Nigeria News Agency, some Labour Party members at the ward level had sent Abure a notice of suspension.
But on Friday, Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje of the Edo High Court dismissed the case due to its lack of substance.
Aihamoje claimed that the party ward executive in Uromi in Ward 3 lacked the authority under the LP constitution, specifically Act 13 & 17 and the Electoral Act 2022, as modified, to depose the national head of the party during the court session, which allegedly lasted nearly two hours on Friday.
Lamidi Apapa and his side are thus prohibited from deposing or suspending Abure as the national chairman until a new national convention of the party is called, according to the judge in Suit No. HUC/21/2023.
However, Dr. Abayomi Arabambi, the National Publicity Secretary of the Apapa faction, told journalists in Abuja that it was unacceptable to declare that Julius Abure had been reinstated as the National Chairman by the Edo State High Court.
Arabambi asserted that the Labour Party would not have deemed it necessary to respond to such factual distortions or have deigned to honor what he called a “beer parlour response” filled with malicious lie.
The expelled LP spokesperson stated: “We just got a ruling of the Edo State High Court in which the court struck aside the Ward Executive’s suspension of Julius Abure as a member of its ward in accordance with Article 10 (2)(I) of the Labour Party Constitution.
“Since Abure is still prohibited from disguising himself as a National officer of the party, the effect of this verdict would have only restored Abure’s membership in the party.
“Unfortunately, the NEC, the party’s highest organ, further suspended Abure and a few other party members at its meeting on May 3, 2023, in Bauchi, for attending an unauthorized NEC meeting that Julius Abure allegedly called while a restraining order issued by the FCT High was still in effect.
The NEC, which is the highest Order of the party, had already suspended Abure and his associates, hence the implications of Abure’s suspension by the NEC in Bauchi render today’s decision to be merely academic. Simply explained, Abure is still under a restraining order from the FCT High Court that hasn’t been vacated or overturned.
Additionally, Abure remains suspended as a result of the NEC’s suspension of him, which was carried out in Bauchi with the authority granted to it under Article 13(2)(b)(Iv) of the Labour Party Constitution.
“The entire world is aware that Mr. Allex Ijetieme SAN on Friday, May 12th, 2023 filed an appeal against the FCT high court’s ruling that barred Julius Abure and three other people from misrepresenting themselves as national officers while the case was still pending the outcome of the initial summons and motion on notice.
“The question that begs an answer is: Can any junior court sit or rule on a subject that is before an appeals court again until the appeals court rules otherwise?
“The response is no. As a result, the Edo State High Court’s decision is pointless, worthless, and irrelevant because the issue is now the subject of an 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 or 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.”
