There is no end in sight yet to the leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party.
Signs of crisis in the party emerged during the build – up to the general election.
The party has been struggling to maintain a united house after the general election this year.
How the crisis started
A former National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi had accused the suspended National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure of forgery and other crimes.
Arabambi alleged that the leadership of the party forged the signature of the Appeal Court judge to insert names of candidates for National Assembly election in Lagos state and presented the list to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The national publicity secretary had made the allegations when he featured on the Morning show aired on Arise Television on December 3, 2022.
He said he had sent a petition to the Inspector General of Police and also wrote the Chief Justice of Nigeria about the matter.
Speaking on the alleged forgery, he had said: “Very soon, police will swoop on the Labour Party headquarters. I have written to the Nigeria Police over it, I have complained to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and I have filed a suit in the Supreme Court over the matter.
“Our party leadership was involved in a forgery of a Court of Appeal judgement. I am not going to be a part of that criminal infraction.
“I have written to the police. I don’t want Nigerians to think that it is APC or PDP that sent police to our office. No. It is what our people did.
“Just because they wanted some candidates to run for election, they manipulated and presented false information to the court of appeal and INEC and I told them no because criminal infraction doesn’t have years. And at any given time the police can knock at your door. Because I was involved in that matter at the Federal High Court I have to set the record straight.
“I don’t want anybody to say I am an accessory to the case. I have my facts and figures and I will publish them in the dailies.
“We didn’t have this kind of thing in the Labour Party until Doyin Okupe came in with his bandwagon of people because they are the ones involved in this thing. I have forwarded their names to IGP, I have reported to the CJN and I have asked my lawyers to write a letter to INEC not to publish the names because they were falsified.
“Our members are giving them safe landing, security or cover up, I am giving them the assurance today that all of us will soon go to Louis Edet House to explain what happened.
“When they came to appeal they changed some names in the judgment of the Federal High Court and that is a criminal offense. You don’t change a name. The parties from a Federal High Court are the ones that will go to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.”
Acting on the forgery allegations, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, in April this year, restrained Abure from parading himself as the National Chairman of the Labour Party.
The court also restrained three officers of the party along with Abure.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, also ordered that the originating processes of the court be served on the restrained officials – Abure, the National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim; the National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara; and the National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu.
The three other officials restrained were also replaced by Alh. Saleh Lawal- Acting National Secretary, Rawland Daramola- Acting Treasurer, and Prince Reuben Favour – Acting Organising Secretary.
Apapa takes over leadership of party
Following the court ruling, National Vice-Chairman (South), Lamidi Apapa took over affairs of the party following the court order barring Abure from parading himself as chairman of the party.
According to Apapa, Abure and the three others must vacate the order of the Federal High Court restraining them before further action can be taken on the leadership of the party.
Seven members of the National Working Committee of the Party announced the replacement of Abure as chairman of the party.
The three other officials restrained were also replaced by Alh. Saleh Lawal- Acting National Secretary, Rawland Daramola- Acting Treasurer, and Prince Reuben Favour – Acting Organising Secretary.
During the meeting, Lamidi also reversed the suspension of Eragbe Anslem as the National Youth Leader and Arabambi as the National Publicity Secretary.
The emergence NWC meeting also reinstated Executive Council members from Ogun State, Rivers State, and Gombe State.
It would be recalled that apart from Abure, the court also restrained three other officials of the party over alleged forgery.
The Presiding Judge held that the ex parte application for interim injunction restraining the four officials by aggrieved members of the LP before the court had merit and granted the same.
Speaking further, Apapa said the NWC also reviewed the suspension of party members and exco that had earlier been suspended by the party leadership.
He said: “The NWC equally reviewed that recently there are some cases of suspensions that were badly handled. And this National Working Committee meeting as reviewed them, and the suspension all over are hereby reviewed and the officers are reinstated.
“With effect from now, the so called officers whose the court had barred should not parade themselves as officers of the party until cases against them are treated or handled by the party.”
Abure’s NWC holds emergency NEC in Asaba
However, defying the order of the court, the Abure led National Working Committee proceeded to hold a National Executive Council meeting in Asaba, the Delta state capital.
During the NEC meeting, the party announced the suspension of Apapa and five others for anti-party activities.
Those suspended during the Asaba NEC meeting included: Alh. Saleh Lawal- Deputy National Secretary; Rawland Daramola- National FinancialSecretary; Prince Reuben Favour – National Vice – Chairman, South – South; Secretary; Samuel Akingbade, National Legal Adviser and Mohammed Akali, National Vice – Chairman, North- East.
The NEC also reaffirmed and upheld the decision of the Akure convention which expelled the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi.
The NEC meeting, which the Apapa faction described as illegal, was attended by the Presidential candidate of the party in the February 25, 2023 election, Peter Obi and some lawmakers elected on the platform of the party.
It was gathered that the meeting was called by Abure and the former National Secretary of the party, Umar Farouk, who has been restrained by the court from parading themselves as executive members of the party.
The NWC has the power to summon a NEC meeting. Abure and Farouk are members of the NWC.
The Abure – led faction, through the Acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, claimed the NEC meeting had been scheduled before the court ruling barring Abure and three other members of the party from parading themselves as officials of the party.
Latest court ruling
On May 12, a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Maitama, dismissed the objection raised by the suspended chairmen of the Labour Party (LP), Abure and three other national officials of the party against a suit seeking their sack over alleged forgery and corrupt practices.
Justice Hamza Muazu, in a ruling on Friday held that his court had jurisdiction to hear and determine suit filed by some aggrieved members of the party.
The ruling was on the preliminary objection filed by Abure, and the suspended National Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim. Justice Muazu faulted the argument by Abure and Ibrahim that the subject matter of the suit was within the realm of the internal affairs of the party on which no court could adjudicate. The judge held that it was no longer the law that the court could not adjudicate on issues relating to the party’s internal affairs.
The judge noted that had the party been at peace with itself, there would not have been any need for the court to interfere in its affairs. “When there is no crack on the wall, there will not be need for an outsider to come mend it,” he said. Justice Muazu held that plaintiffs’ case was justiciable contrary to the argument by lawyer to Abure and Ibrahim, Alex Ejesieme (SAN), adding that the plaintiffs were right to have instituted the case via an originating summons.
Following the April 5 ex-parte injunction made by Justice Muazu, stopping Abure, the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Umar Farouk and two other national officials, Ejesieme had on April 20 argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
The senior advocate had submitted that the matter before the court bordered on the internal affairs of the Labour Party, adding that criminal allegations made by the plaintiffs in the case, could not be ventilated in an origination summon.
He added that the eight plaintiffs that brought the case before the court were not members of the National Executive Council of the party and as such lacked the locus standi to institute the case. “Our contention is very clear that those criminal allegations cannot be ventilated in an origination summon. The issue of locus standi is there. When you refer to LP’s constitution, the claimants are not members of NEC or the party. They have a duty to present their membership cards to the court which they didn’t,” the counsel argued.
Abure heads for appeal court
Following the ruling of the court, Abure expressed optimism of getting justice in the Court of Appeal.
“I am ready to go for an appeal. We will be submitting our notice of appeal to the court and we will move all the matter from that court and take it to the court of Appeal. I believe that I will get justice in the Court of Appeal. I believe that the Labour Party will get justice in the court of Appeal,” Abure said.
Going by the ruling by the court, the Apapa-led faction has retained the leadership of the party pending when the Court of Appeal will rule on the matter.
Is this the end of Abure as national chairman of the LP? Time will tell.
