Appeal Court settles LP’s legal tussle, affirms Abure as chair

The embattled National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Julius Abure, was Friday affirmed as the authentic national chairman of the party.

In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja upheld the October 8 judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant the LP under Abure’s leadership all the rights and privileges accorded a political party duly registered in the country.

The appellate court held further that it found no reason to dislodge the judgement delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite.

The judgment it would be recalled was in Abure’s favour.

The party was plunged into a leadership crisis shortly after the 2023 election.The meeting where Abure was sacked from office was chaired by the former candidate of the party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi.

While it lasted, the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party resolved to remove Abure as the National Chairman. The party went ahead to constitute a 29-member caretaker committee, with former finance minister, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, as Chairman and Hon. Darlington Nwokocha as Secretary.

The decision was the outcome of an expanded stakeholders’ meeting of the party that was hosted in Umuahia by Governor Alex Otti of Abia state.

Aggrieved with the party’s decision, Abure proceeded to the high court to validate his position as the National Chairman of the party.

In an affidavit he personally deposed to in support of the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1271/2024, Abure told the court that following the death of the National Chairman of the LP, he was lawfully elected as the Acting National Chairman of the party at a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party that held in Benin City, Edo state, on March 29, 2021.