The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory yesterday refused to vacate an interim order restraining the embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Julius Abure, the National Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim, and two others from parading themselves as leaders of the party.
Counsel to Abure, Alex Ejesieme (SAN), had prayed the court to vacate the interim order and restore a semblance of sanity, after a forceful take-over of the LP national secretariat by another faction.
The senior lawyer said the division in the party following the interim order has worsened to the point that four groups in the Imo State chapter of the Labour Party held parallel primaries.
The presiding judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, by way of intervention, ordered all parties in the suit to ensure speedy filing of their processes to make a quick hearing of the case possible.
Justice Muazu, fixed April 20 to take all applications in respect of the case amidst a call by counsel of the national officers of the party to have the matter heard speedily.
*NLC storms LP secretariat
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday paid a solidarity visit to the embattled national chairman of LP, Abure at the national secretariat in Utako, Abuja.
The labour movement also threatened to occupy the residential homes of some opponents of the suspended national Chairman if they attempt to come near the national secretariat of the party again.
It also directed all workers in the country to arrest anybody suspected to be plotting to destroy the LP.
The LP has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis for about two weeks now following the FCT High Court interim injunction restraining the party’s chairman from parading himself as the national chairman.
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Arising from the FCT court order, the party’s national vice chairman (South), Lamido Bashir Apapa assumed the position of the chairman in an acting capacity.
Addressing workers at the party office, the President of NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, flanked by the General Secretary, Comrade Emma Ugboaja, TUC leaders, and other labour leaders as well as hundreds of workers, said as trustees of the party, no one has the power to occupy any position in the party without their consent.
He said the labour movement will resist any plot to derail Labour Party, especially now that it is enjoying wide acceptance by Nigerians.
He said under no circumstances will the labour movement allows anyone to derail the party they worked hard to recover from impostors.
The visibly angry NLC President said, “Today, we say enough is enough. Never again will any human being enter here under any guise, under any order. Even if we lose our leadership, we have to meet as trustees of this party to decide the next line of action.
“For anybody to illegally declare himself either as chairman, secretary or anything, we urge all workers anywhere in the country, where you see such people, arrest them and bring them to us.
“The hour has come. The Bible says, “From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of God suffereth violence. And violence taketh by force. Now we have come to take our party, we have come to establish our party.
“As the fastest-growing party, you can see that envy and jealousy is crippling in. The people that are pioneering this to sabotage us let’s announce here that we know your fathers.
“If you continue this way, we will go after your fathers. We leave it here until we finish our private discussion. Let it be known to the whole world that the NLC fathered LP and we will not abandon our child,” he said.
Ajaero said that NLC’ decided to visit the party headquarters to fish out intruders that want to usurp the leadership of the Labour Party.
“For some time now, we have not been visiting our house we decided to visit our house this afternoon after getting some information that some rodents are trying to move into our house and we have come with some insecticide to fumigate the house from any rodents that are illegally trying to enter our property.
“So, that is why we are here, incidentally, we didn’t see any rodents but we will comb around and see whether there are any. The LP is a child of circumstances. It began when we lost almost all confidence in the existing political parties. And we felt that the LP will be the ideal political party that will represent our ideological persuasions.
“On the other hand, that was why the LP was formed. For anybody or group that thinks that they can sabotage or derail our ideological move, we will resist them with the last drop of our blood.
“This was formed by the NLC and TUC. This is our party. Nobody can come from the blues and declare himself as the chairman or secretary of our party without our consent.
“If such people attempt to come here next time, all their property, their houses, we will convert it to labour party offices – their residential houses, we will go and occupy it wherever it is located and they will know that all the property they have was given to them by the Labour,” he said.
The leadership of LP later went into the closed-door meeting with the NLC delegation.
Speaking earlier after he resumed office amid tight security, the embattled national chairman of the party, Abure, said he was not opposed to peace in the party, saying if Apapa and others repent, they would be forgiven of their sins.
It was observed that immediately the embattled chairman, (Abure) entered through the back door of the building at about 12:41 pm, the security operatives attached to him and those manning the place quickly locked the main gate of the party’s building.
Abure said, “I want to say clearly that we’re not opposed to the peace of the party. I value peace, and we appreciate the peaceful environment, as the house divided against itself cannot stand.
“That’s why, for me, I have been very open to our colleagues that it is better to have one united house. You will recall that we may always have disagreements but I’ve always pursued peace.
“The people fighting us, of course, I want to say here clearly, that there is no justification for it. I want to believe that they are under serious inducement.
“They are not working for this party, they are working for the opposition party. It is very clear, it is very obvious. The party was at its lowest ebb when we came on board.
“We took the party where it was, and we took it to the centre. So, for whatever reason that they may have, to have disagreements, I didn’t expect that they should take it to the level they’ve taken it to.
“It shows that they are heavily induced. It is all over the place that they are not working for the party, and of course, if they are ready to repent from their sins, who are we? We will forgive them and allow peace to reign.
“For me, I’m not pretending, I have made it very clear that there is no going back in recovering the mandate given to the Labour Party and our presidential candidate. We’re committed to it and we will continue to pursue it.
“We’re in court, we want to assure Nigerians that we are going to follow the process to the end. We’re going to work hard, we are not going to rest on our oars, until that mandate is reclaimed.
“Across the federation, you saw the injustice that was meted out on us, how our mandates were stolen at the presidential level, at the state governorship level and the House of Assembly level, and even House of Representatives and Senate.
“I must reassure you that those mandates will be reclaimed, we will pursue it and get it sorted out. What’s happening has not discouraged me. I refused to be discouraged and distracted because I see it as a very formidable form of distraction that opposition political parties are doing.
“Nothing can stop us from pursuing the cases. We will continue to provide the objective result-oriented leadership that we’ve always done.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigerians are in dire need of good leadership at this point. They trusted us and they believed in us, they believed in the party.”
