Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi get new guber candidates, as Appeal Court affirms Apapa as Labour Party National Chairman
By Joel Oladele, Abuja
The leadership tussle in the Labour Party has taken a new twist as the Court of Appeal in Owerri, Imo State sacked Julius Abure and recognised Lamidi Apapa as the National Chairman of the Labour Party on Thursday.
Consequently, the court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately recognise and publish the names of all the governorship candidates produced by the Apapa-led National Working Committee in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states.
This is coming barely 10 days after the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, the Edo State, affirmed Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party.
The court also dismissed the gubernatorial candidature of Senator Athan Achonu of and others belonging to the Abure-led LP faction and affirmed Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph (Ikenga) as the duly Nominated Candidate of the Labour Party for the Imo State Governorship Elections.
Recall that on the 5th of April, 2023, the FCT High court restrained Abure and others from parading themselves as National Officers of the party and as a result the party appointed the Deputy National Chairman (Alhaji Bashiru Lamidi Apapa) as the Acting National Chairman of the party pursuant to its Constitution.
Sequel to that the party under the leadership of Alhaji Apapa wrote to the INEC changing its date of primary earlier scheduled by Abure from 15th to 16th of April, 2023.
Addressing journalists in Abuja after the judgement, the Labour Party National Chairman, Lamidi Apapa said the judgement has brought to rest the confusion surrounding the choice of Labour Party governorship candidates in the forthcoming off-cycle elections.
“Notwithstanding, under a restraining order, Abure still went ahead to conduct his primaries for Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa on 15th of April, 2023. On the other hand, Lamidi Apapa led faction conducted his primaries for IMO on 16th of April, 2023 and as such there were two primaries conducted by the Labour Party in these states,” Lamidi noted.
Peeved by the primary conducted by the Apapa faction, a candidate who participated in the Abure primary took the Apapa candidate to court whilst maintaining that Abure candidates were the authentic candidate as he is the authentic chairman of the party.
The case was frantically defended, and the Federal High court, Owerri Division, declared the primaries conducted by Apapa as the authentic candidate as Abure was under a restraining order as at the time he screened candidates and conducted his primaries. Thus, the court recognised Alhaji Lamidi Apapa as the authentic Chairman of the party.
