The Abuja Federal High Court has confirmed Julius Abure as the substantive Chairman of the Labour Party.
In its judgment delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite on Tuesday, it confirmed the Abure-led leadership and the convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, held in March 2024.
It ordered INEC to henceforth recognize him as the authentic chairman, overriding the earlier stance of INEC, which had declared Abure’s leadership invalid.
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INEC had argued that the national convention of the Labour Party ran foul of the Constitution of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act, and that the party failed to meet legal requirements for holding the convention.
The Commission had claimed that Julius Abure was no longer the National Chairman of the Labour Party, as his tenure lapsed in June 2024.
The commission announced this in a reaction to the suit filed by the Labour Party against their exclusion from INEC’s refresher training for uploading party agents ahead of Edo and Ondo governorship election.
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The commission said the re-election of Abure as chairman at the Labour Party’s National Convention in March 2024 ran afoul of the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act, thus arguing such leadership of the party is null and that they only relate with parties with recognized leadership.
Counsel to INEC, Tanko Inuwa, SAN, argued that the declaratory reliefs sought by the Labour Party cannot be granted upon admissions, when it has a duty to prove its case. The failure of the Labour Party to comply with the conditions precedent by the law to hold their national convention, INEC insisted, translates to mean that the party no longer has valid leadership.
It would be recalled that in September, Labour Party, LP presidential candidate in the last general election, Mr. Peter Obi, and Abia State governor, Mr. Alex Otti, had written the national chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to notify the regulatory body of the setting up of a 29-member caretaker committee to organise the party’s congresses and national convention within a period not exceeding 180 days.
This followed a stakeholders’ meeting which resulted in a caretaker committee led by Nenadi Usman to be set up and charged with the responsibility of steering the affairs of the party and conducting a national convention.
