The National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, and three other national executive members, on Thursday, announced their return to the party secretariat.
The development is coming one month after they were barred by Justice Hamza Muazu of Federal High Court in Abuja from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
The judge ruled that Abure; his National Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim; National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu and one other, should no longer be given recognition as party executives.
The order was granted in an ex parte application argued by Chief James Ogwu Onoja (SAN), in which he informed the court the affected national officers allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court to carry out unlawful substitutions in the recently-held 2023 general elections.
According to him, such documents included receipts, seal and affidavits of the court, which he claimed the party officials used to carry out criminal activities.
However, addressing journalists a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Abure announced the official return of all suspended national executive members to the secretariat following motion for stay at the Court of Appeal.
He dismissed reports that the Labour Party has been factionalised, despite the fact that Bashiru Apapa had taken over as acting National Chairman with Abure’s suspension.
The PUNCH reports that the Abure and Apapa factions clashed on Wednesday at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja where the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, are challenging the emergence of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Speaking on Thursday on his return, Abure said, “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.”
