Julius Abure, the embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has vehemently disputed his reported removal by an Appeal Court convened in Owerri, the capital of Imo State.
According to a report by Naija News, due to security concerns, the Court of Appeal, holding session in Abuja, nullified all off-season governorship primary elections overseen by Julius Abure, the party’s National Chairman. The court’s decision further mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to promptly recognize and publish the names of governorship candidates in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states as determined by the National Working Committee led by Lamidi Apapa.
In discussions with journalists, Apapa emphasized that the court’s ruling underscored Abure’s lack of legitimacy as the party chairman during the conduct of the primaries. He delineated, “The Edo State matter more or less has to do with civil matters. The Excos in Edo suspended him, and they went to court because of that, and they don’t have the right to suspend him. I’m talking about the ward level.But the FCT (court) restraining order has to do with criminal matters and is between the state and Abure, and nobody is above the law. That’s the difference between a civil matter and a criminal matter.”
Apapa continued, “The order of FCT has not been vacated, and that is why, on the basis of that, the Appeal Court reaffirmed that by the time he conducted his primary, the restraining order was in place, and up till today, the order is still in force. That’s the difference between the two.”
Contrastingly, in an interview with The Findwhosabi , Abure denounced the news of his ouster by the Appeal Court as a fabrication. He contended, “It is nothing but fake news. Let me send you our official reaction to the report. Senator Athan Achonu is our candidate. The lower court said it has no jurisdiction to look at the case ab initio and that the status quo should remain.”
Abure further elaborated, “But why we even went on appeal was that after the court had denied jurisdiction, the judge went ahead to make few comments. It was on the basis that we didn’t want anybody to capitalise on it by challenging it. The court today now said the appeal was unnecessary because it has denied jurisdiction. That was what they said. So neither the Federal High Court nor the Appeal Court was in their favour. But we know they are used to carrying propaganda and so on.”
Additionally, the National Secretary of the LP, Umar Farouk, clarified that the appellate court’s verdict did not mention Abure in any capacity. Farouk emphasized, “That report was wrong. There was no where in the ruling where Abure was mentioned. Nothing was in the judgment. Somebody somewhere just twisted the judgment. It is wrong.”