•••ORDERS STAY OF EXECUTION ON ORDER SUSPENDING HIM, OTHERS
A High Court in Abuja, presided over by
Justice Hamza Muazu, on Friday granted an order for a stay execution on the suspension of Julius Abure, Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) and others.
After listening to arguments from the parties, the judge granted the order for the stay execution pending the determination of the appeal filed by the defendants.
Those who returned as officials of the party are the National Organizing Secretary, Mr Clement Ojukwu and National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara, from parading themselves as LP national officials.
The plaintiffs, Martins Esikpali John; Lucky Shaibu; Isah Zekeri; Omogbai Frank; Abokhaiu Aliu; Ayohkaire Lateef; John Elomah and Dr Ayobami Arabambi, had in an ex-parte motion, marked M/7082/2023, prayed for the removal of Abure and the three other national officers of the party.
Recall that Justice Muazu had on April 5 issued an interim injunction stopping Abure, Ibrahim and the party’s National Organizing Secretary, Mr Clement Ojukwu and National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara, from parading themselves as national officers of LP.
During the Friday’s hearing, the defendants told the court that they have an appeal at the court of Appeal.
However, after long arguments from the parties, the judge granted order for a stay of on the suspension.
On April 5, Alex Ejedieme, SAN, Counsel to Abure argued on April 20, that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Ejedieme told the court that the case before it was an internal affairs of the party, stressing that the criminal angle of the case made by the plaintiffs could not be substantiated in an original summon.
According to him, the plaintiffs who brought the case were never members of the LP’s National Executive Council stressing that they lacked the locus standi to file the case.
He said, “Our contention is very clear that those criminal allegations cannot be ventilated in an original summon
The issue of locus standi is here. When you referred to LP’s constitution, the claimants are not members of NEC of the party. They have a duty to present their membership cards to the court, which they didn’t”.
George Ibrahim, counsel for the plaintiffs, objected to the summation raised by the counsel for Abure and urging the court to dismiss it.
He told the court that the first to the fourth defendants refused to obey the April 5 order of the court as they went about acting as national officers of the party.
The judge then adjourned until Friday 19, to hear the substantive case.
In the beginning of the case, the plaintiffs had informed the court, through their counsel, Ogwu Onoja SAN, that Abure and the three other national officials allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court, including receipts, seals and affidavits, to carry out unlawful substitutions in the last general election.
Onoja said that following their indictment by police investigation, the four people are to be arraigned in court, claiming that warrants for their arrest had already been obtained.
