LP crisis: I’ll get justice at Appeal Court – Abure

Suspended National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has expressed optimism of getting justice in the Court of Appeal.

He said this while reacting to the ruling of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court that sustained his suspension.

In its ruling on Friday, the court said Abure remained suspended pending the hearing of a substantive case instituted against him by a faction of the party.

But speaking while receiving some members of civil society groups and supporters of Labour Party in FCT, Abure said, “We have obeyed the court restraining order and by today, the court gave a ruling, assuming jurisdiction. I need to make it 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.

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“I am ready to go for an appeal. 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. I believe that I will get justice in the Court of Appeal. I believe that Labour Party will get justice in the court of Appeal.

“Because this same court in FCT in 2023 in the case of Suleiman v APC did the same thing and the Law Report decided by the Supreme Court made it very clear that the court has no jurisdiction over such matter. We believe that whatever the court has said today can’t stand before the court of Appeal.

“I believe that the court of Appeal will do the right thing and therefore all our papers will be filled today and by Monday the appeal will commence. I want to assure all our supporters, all our members that they should remain calm, I remain the National Chairman of the Labour Party.”

He also said that whatever is being said is about the tribunal, and that it is no longer news that the disgruntled Labour Party members have been “paid to truncate” the cases in tribunal, to satisfy their paymasters, urging LP members to disregard them.

He said, “We were a small party and because we want 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.”