Court Affirms Abure As LP Chairman, Restrains Apapa-Faction

A State High Court in Edo dismissed on Friday the notice of suspension issued by some party members at the ward level against the beleaguered National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure.

On Friday, Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje dismissed the lawsuit for lack of merit.

This was contained in a statement published on Friday in Abuja by the party’s Acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, who also stated that the case was filed by Abure and the executives of LP Ward 3 in Esan North East, Edo State.

Aihamojen ruled in his nearly two-hour-long decision that the party ward executive in Uromi, Ward 3, lacked the authority under the Labour Party Constitution, specifically Acts 13 and 17, and the Electoral Act 2022, as amended, to dismiss the party’s national chairperson.

As a result, the judge in Suit No: HUC/21/2023 issued a perpetual injunction prohibiting Lamidi Apapa and his side from dismissing or suspending Abure as national chairman until a new national convention of the party is convened.

Aihamoje further alleged that the putative wards of 3 executives who suspended the party’s national chairperson went outside of the powers granted to it by the Labour Party Constitution.

In response to the ruling, LP Ward 3 Chairman Thompson Ehiguese informed reporters on the court grounds that the decision has put a stop to impostors masquerading as members of the Labour Party in the ward.