The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which recognised Julius Abure as the national chairman of the Labour Party (LP).
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to have affirmed Abure as chairman of the LP since the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.
The court held that the issue of leadership was an internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction.
According to the Supreme Court, the appellate court lacked the jurisdiction to enter any pronouncement in favour of Abure since it had earlier found that the subject matter of the dispute bordered on the leadership of a political party.
Consequently, the Supreme Court allowed an appeal that was filed by a former Minister of Finance, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman and Hon. Darlington Nwokocha, who are the Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of a Caretaker Committee that was earlier appointed to pilot the affairs of the party.
The court upheld the appeal filed against the judgement by Nenadi Usman, who was appointed the caretaker chairperson of the party in September 2024, and one other.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) had sacked the Abure-led executive in September last year and appointed Ms. Usman, a former Minister of Finance and ex-senator representing Kaduna South, to lead a 29-member caretaker Committee and facilitate the election of a new party leadership within 90 days.
The Supreme Court held on Friday that M.s Usman’s appeal was meritorious, as it also dismissed the cross-appeal filed by the Abure-led faction of the LP for lacking merit.
The Court of Appeal had on 17 January 2025, ruled that its earlier decision in November 2024, recognising Abure as the party’s chairman, remained valid and had not been overturned by any court.
Justice Hamma Barka, who read the lead judgement, held that the appellate court did not consider the two separate appeals filed by the appellants since they centred on party leadership, on which the court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate.