The embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has rejected his alleged ouster by an Appeal Court sitting in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The Court of Appeal, which sat in Abuja owing to security concerns, invalidated all the off-season governorship primary elections conducted by the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure.
The court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to immediately recognise and publish the names of all the governorship candidates in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states produced by the Lamidi Apapa-led National Working Committee.
Speaking to journalists, Apapa insisted that the court ruling had reaffirmed that Abure was not the authentic party chairman of the party when the primaries were conducted.
He said, “The Edo State matter more or less has to do with civil matters. The Excos in Edo suspended him, and they went to court because of that, and they don’t have the right to suspend him. I’m talking about the ward level.
“But the FCT (court) restraining order has to do with criminal matters and is between the state and Abure, and nobody is above the law. That’s the difference between a civil matter and a criminal matter.
“The order of FCT has not been vacated, and that is why, on the basis of that, the Appeal Court reaffirmed that by the time he conducted his primary, the restraining order was in place, and up till today, the order is still in force. That’s the difference between the two.”
But in an interview with The PUNCH, Abure described reports of his removal by the Appeal Court as fake news.
He said: “It is nothing but fake news. Let me send you our official reaction to the report. Senator Athan Achonu is our candidate. The lower court said it has no jurisdiction to look at the case ab initio and that the status quo should remain.
“But why we even went on appeal was that after the court had denied jurisdiction, the judge went ahead to make few comments. It was on the basis that we didn’t want anybody to capitalise on it by challenging it. The court today now said the appeal was unnecessary because it has denied jurisdiction.
“That was what they said. So neither the Federal High Court nor the Appeal Court was in their favour. But we know they are used to carrying propaganda and so on.”
Also, the LP National Secretary, Umar Farouk, disclosed that Abure was not mentioned in the ruling passed by the appellate court.
Farouk said, “That report was wrong. There was no where in the ruling where Abure was mentioned. Nothing was in the judgment. Somebody somewhere just twisted the judgment. It is wrong.”
