The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Mr Julius Abure has resumed office after he filed a stay of execution at the Court of Appeal against the ex parte motion from a high court that suspended him and some other national officials of the party.
The initial court order was what led to the emergence of Alhaji Lamidi Apapa as factional chairman.
Announcing his return as undisputed national chairman, Abure at a world press conference in Abuja on Thursday said he had filed a stay of execution on the ex parte order which according to him has cleared the way for the normalization of the party. According to him, “I’m back on the saddle.”
Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal High Court in Abuja had granted the ex parte that barred Abure, the National Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim; National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu and one other, from parading as the party’s national executives.
The order came upon the ex-parte application argued by Chief James Ogwu Onoja SAN, in which he accused the national officers of forgery among others.
However, after filing the stay of execution granted on Thursday, Abure said the crisis in the party was over.
In his words, “Having appealed and filed a motion for a stay which has been served on the judge, I and my colleagues have now fully assumed our constitutional responsibilities as National Officers of the party.
“It has become imperative for me to address this press conference to properly put the legal issues surrounding the leadership of the party in proper perspectives. It is pertinent to state categorically that Labour Party has no faction. It has only one leadership and that leadership is the National Working Committee led by myself, Barrister Julius Abure,” he said in declaring the crisis in the Labour Party as over following the court ruling.
He also informed that there is no going back in the petition filed by the party challenging the February 25 presidential election which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu as the winner.