The Edo State Court of Appeal upheld an earlier decision by the state’s high court that recognized Julius Abure as the legitimate leader of the Labor Party.
The situation started in March when certain LP members in Edo announced Abure’s suspension. The suspension was driven by Lucky Shaibu, a party chieftain.
In response, Abure and other party leaders filed a suit to challenge the suspension. The high court ruled in Abure’s favour, holding that the executives in Uromi Ward 3 lacked the power under the LP constitution to remove him as national chairman.
Shaibu appealed the high court’s decision, but the appellate court in the appeal marked CA/B/93/2023 dismissed it on Monday.
The appellate court, in the lead judgment read by Justice Theresa Ngolika Orji Abadua, declared that the decision was final and binding.
With the appellate court’s decision, Abure remains the national chairman of the Labour Party and consequently renders the party’s self-acclaimed national chairman, Lamidi Apapa, impotent.
Apapa had while inaugurating a 24-man caretaker State Working Committee of the Labour Party in Lagos on Saturday reaffirmed himself as the party’s national chairman on the grounds that the courts have restrained Abure from parading himself in that capacity.
“Nobody is above the law. Labour Party is a creation of law; if the party is created by law, anyone who violates the law is not a party member.
“There is nothing for us to fear. There is no going back, Abure has been restrained by the courts. We are not joking,” he had said.
But reacting to the court judgment, Abure said: “I thank the Obidient movement who tarry with me and Mr Peter Obi while the impostor Mr Lamidi Apapa and his adherents who tried to trade off the mandate freely given to the Labour Party with billions of Naira expended by his paymasters in the opposition parties”.
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