Battle for Labour Party: Abure floors Obi, Otti, INEC  

  Julius Abure was on Tuesday declared the substantive National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

The victory of Abi Abure at the court was an obvious defeat for the party’s only governor, Alex Otti and the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi and others members of Labour Party aligned to them who have been fighting tooth and nail to remove him from office.

Oti and Obi had led members of Labour Party to sack Abure as chairman of the party in a stakeholders meeting held in Umuahia, Abia State some months ago. Subsequently, the Labour Party chieftains had set up a caretaker committee led by former finance minister, Nenadi Usman to take over the administration of the party. But Abure rejected the setting up of the caretaker committee, describing it as unconstitutional.

However, Abure won the battle for the chairmanship as Justice Emeka Nwite, in a judgment, affirmed the legality of the March 2024 Nnewi Convention that produced the national leadership of the LP he is leading.

Justice Nwite also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Abure as the legitimate chairman, overriding INEC’s earlier stance that Abure’s leadership was invalid.

INEC had argued that the LP’s national convention, which was conducted, violated the Constitution and Electoral Act, and that the party failed to meet legal requirements for holding the convention.

The electoral empire had said that Abure was no longer the national chairman of the party, stating that Abure’s tenure expired in June 2024.