Barr Julius Abure, the national chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has stated that he is still the rightful national chairman of the opposition party.
During a recent solidarity visit by civil society groups and party supporters in FCT, Abure emphasized his longstanding involvement in the party for the past 20 years and stated that he remains in his position as national chairman.
Despite concerns over the FCT High Court’s ruling on the party’s leadership crisis, Abure noted that the party had followed the court order in the past three rulings.
“We have obeyed the court restraining order and by today, the court gave a ruling, assuming jurisdiction.
“I need to make it abundantly clear that the substantive matter has not started. There was a preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of the court and the court today assumed jurisdiction. And for me, I am ready to go for an appeal. In the next few hours, 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. Because this same court in FCT in 2023 in the case of Suleiman vs APC did the same thing and the Law Report decided by the Supreme Court made it very clear that the court has no jurisdiction over such matter.
“That is where we are standing and we believe that whatever the court has said today can’t stand before the Court of Appeal. I believe that the Court of Appeal will do the right thing and therefore all our papers will be filed today and by Monday the appeal will commence. And so I want to assure all our supporters, all our members that they should remain calm, I remain the National Chairman of the Labour Party.” He said
“The Labour Party is a democratic institution and you don’t use a coup de’tat to grab leadership, you don’t use the back door to take over the leadership of the party. That is what Apapa and co tried to do. Though we understand them because they have been paid by their paymasters, if you look at the statement they made today, they are talking about the Tribunal.
“Whatever they say is about the tribunal, and it is no longer news that these disgruntled Labour Party members have been paid to truncate the cases in Tribunal. They are only satisfying their paymasters and so we urge all our members to disregard them.
“We all know how to remove the National Chairman, and how a new one can be elected. So it is unfortunate that this group of people found themselves in the Labour Party. The time has come for us to separate the wheat from the chaff.
“The party was a small party and because we wanted to have numbers, we accommodated all form of charlatans and dubious people into the party. These are people who didn’t offer anything to the party. Apapa scored zero in Oyo state in the Presidential election. Arabambi who is claiming to be the Publicity Secretary scored zero in Ogun state in the presidential election. They even supported other candidates from other parties. In Edo, I scored 79 percent of the votes in the presidential election. I ensured that APC and PDP did not get 25 percent in that election.
“In the governorship election and House of Assembly election, in spite of the dollars and harassment that were deployed by the PDP government, I am the only national chairman that won my ward. My performance as the national chairman of this party is in no doubt. I inherited a party that was in arrears of salary payment, a party that has no image and today I have made the party number one party in Nigeria.
“At this party, I paid my dues. I have been here for 20 years building this party and today I challenge all other national chairman of other parties, none of them have performed more than me and the records are clear. So these hirelings say they want to take over the party, we laugh at them. And I urge Nigerians to ignore them because whatever information they are getting from them is fake news.
“I want to reassure you that we are in control and I remain the national chairman. I assure you that we continue to provide leadership. Our cases in court, we will continue to defend them. Our House of Reps and senatorial cases, we will continue to defend to the end and our presidential election tribunal we will defend to the end. No amount of distraction will stop us from attaining our aspirations.
“I listened to you clearly, you are dreaming for a new Nigeria, and I want to say it clearly, no one, no amount of intimidation, harassment, no amount of hundreds of Apapas can stop an idea whose time has come.
“Time has come for Nigeria to take back their country, the time has come for the Labour Party to take over the presidency of this country and nothing will stop us,” Abure said.
However, the Labour Party’s leadership expressed its disappointment with the FCT State High Court’s decision not to decline jurisdiction over a case brought by a group loyal to the suspended Deputy National Chairman, Lamidi Apapa against some of the party’s leaders, including the National Chairman, Julius Abure and three others.
The party’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiorah Ifoh, stated that the judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, in his ruling, refused to dismiss the case and said he would proceed to hear the main issue.
“The matter has been adjourned to Friday, May 19 for further deliberation.
“However, we are appealing the ruling immediately because we know we will not get justice from the court.
“Meanwhile, Barrister Julius Abure remains the National Chairman of the Party pending the final determination of the matter,” Obiorah concluded.
