Abure Clears Air On Labour Party’s Internal Wrangling

Embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Barr. Julius Abure has said that he will appeal the ruling of FCT High Court’s refusal to decline jurisdiction over allegation of forgery preferred against him by the Lamidi Apapa-led faction locked in leadership crisis in the party.

Abure who said he does not believe he will get justice in the Justice Hamza Muazu court, said an appeal court would give the Labour Party and himself justice over the matter brother on leadership crisis of the party.

The embattled National Chairman of the Party said this to a civil society group and supporter of the Labour Party, Country Director Vote Must International Initiative, Dr. Barry Avotu Jonson, who led his members on a solidarity visit to the Labour Party Headquarters

Abure said, “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.

“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 Labour Party will get justice in the court of Appeal, the Labour Party, National Chairman stated

Abure indicted the Judge for court decisions which are inconsistent with law have been overturned by the Supreme Court.

His words: “This same court in FCT in 2023 in the case of Sulieman v 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 filled today and by Monday the appeal will commence.

“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.

“Labour party is a democratic institution and you don’t use coup d’ 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 want to have numbers, we accommodated all forms 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 performances 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.

“In this party, I have paid my dues. I have been here for 20 years building this party and today I challenge all other national chairmen of other parties, none of them have performed more than me and the records are clear. So these hirelings to say they want to take over the party, we laugh at them.

“I urge Nigerians to ignore them because whatever information they are getting from them are 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 Labour Party to take over the presidency of this country and nothing will stop us.”

Leader of the delegation of supporters and Country Director of Vote Must International Initiative said their mission was to come and thank the embattled Chairman of Labour Party for keeping the party together in spite of the series of intimidation and harassment from the ruling All Progressives Congress.

He told Abure that because he was elected, the party members and supporters will continue to stand by the party and Abure.

“We know the target of these political touts and their plots to truncate the mandates given to our presidential candidate Peter Obi will not be accepted,” he said.

Another member of the delegation, Amb. Ayo Ogedengbe of the Trustee Vote must count international initiative also said that the international community is behind the party and the crisis in the party will soon be a thing of the past.

“We believe you will come out stronger and will lead the party to the presidency by God’s grace,” he concluded.

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