The embattled national chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Barr Julius Abure, has declared that he remains the national chairman of the party.
Addressing civil society groups and supporters of the Labour Party in Abuja during their solidarity visit to his office, Abure said he has paid his dues in the party in the last 20 years, adding that he remains the national chairman of the labour party.
He however, expressed worry over an order of the FCT High Court on the party’s leadership crisis, saying they have obeyed the court order before the three rulings.
“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.
“And 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.
Earlier this Friday evening, the factional leader of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa claimed he is now the bonafide acting chairman of the party.
He then ordered all the lawyers representing the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi, a deadline of 48 hours to brief him on the ongoing election petitions tribunal.
Apapa’s ultimatum comes after a High Court pronouncement concerning the jurisdiction of the case brought against the embattled Chairman, Julius Abure.
He said, “I am so pleased that justice has taken place today. There is no doubt that I am now in charge. It has now been confirmed by the court that I have the right to be in charge until another order takes place.
“As of today, I am the acting national chairman of the party and any other person that parades himself as the chairman is doing so illegally.“
Apapa addressing the press:
On his part, Abure slammed Apapa and his faction for issuing the wrong information to the public.
“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 wanted to have numbers, we accommodated all form 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.