Suspended National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, and three other national executive members, on Thursday, announced their return to the party secretariat.
Gatekeepers News reports that this development comes one month after they were barred by Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal High Court in Abuja from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
The judge ruled that Abure; his National Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim; National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu, and one other, should no longer be given recognition as party executives.
The Court granted an ex parte application argued by James Ogwu Onoja (SAN), in which he informed the court that the affected national officers allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court to carry out unlawful substitutions in the recently-held 2023 general elections.
Onoja said such documents included receipts, seals, and affidavits of the court, claiming that the party officials used to carry out criminal activities.
Nevertheless, Abure, while addressing journalists at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, announced the official return of all suspended national executive members to the secretariat following a motion for stay at the Court of Appeal.
Although Lamidi Apapa had taken over as acting National Chairman with Abure’s suspension, Abure dismissed reports that the Labour Party has been factionalised.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Abure and Apapa factions clashed on Wednesday at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja where the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, are challenging the emergence of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Abure, while speaking on his return on Thursday said, “It has become imperative for me to address this press conference to properly put the legal issues surrounding the leadership of the party in proper perspectives. It is pertinent to state categorically that Labour Party has no faction. It has only one leadership and that leadership is the National Working Committee led by myself, Barrister Julius Abure.”
