A Federal Capital Territory High Court on Monday refused to vacate an interim order restraining the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, the National Secretary, Farouk Ibrahim and two others from parading themselves as leaders of the party.
Instead of lifting the restraining order when the court sat on Monday, Justice Hamza Muazu fixed April 20 to take all applications in respect of the case, this is despite an urgent call by counsel of the embattled national officers of the party to have the matter heard speedily.
Alex Ejesieme (SAN) who is counsel to Abure, had prayed the Court to vacate the interim order and “restore a semblance of sanity, after a forceful takeover of the Labour Party national secretariat by another faction.”
The 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.
Justice Muazu by way of intervention, however, ordered all parties in the suit to ensure speedy filing of their processes to make for a quick hearing of the case possible.
Recall that seven members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) had announced that Lamidi Bashir Apapa, the LP National Vice-Chairman for the South, would take over as acting party chairman in place of suspended chairman Julius Abure, plunging the party into deeper crisis.
The NWC members, led by Apapa based their decision on the judgement of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court which had restrained Julius Abure from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party.
