BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
A detachment of the Nigeria Police and thugs reportedly launched a massive attack on the national headquarters of the Labour Party in Abuja on Thursday and chased away the workers.
A statement by the embattled national chairman of the party, Julius Abure said, “The invaders who are armed reportedly pulled down the fences, burglaries, doors and windows to have access to our secretariat and in the process sacked workers and party members who were at the secretariat.
“Though, I was out of town, information has it that the agenda of the invaders was to inaugurate an illegitimate executive which has been chosen for them by their sponsors.
“This incident is coming days after a similar invasion in our Imo State secretariat which up till now is still being occupied by the agents of the Imo State government.
“Only yesterday, our presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi through the Presidential Campaign Council alerted Nigerians of a plot to hound him out of the country over APC’s covert plot in collaboration with some security agents to frame him up allegedly on matters bothering on treason,” he said.
Abure said the Labour Party is only a political party which is contesting for power.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, having conducted elections ranked us third, a position we have rejected and have approached the Tribunal to contest. That is our only offence.
“We therefore call on President Muhammadu Buhari to call his party, the APC to order and also rein them in from using unorthodox means to suffocate political structures in Nigeria.
“A court of competent jurisdiction only yesterday ordered that I, Julius Abure remain the National Chairman, and should not be restrained from performing my duties, it therefore baffles me why the Nigerian Police should allow itself to be used to perpetrate illegalities.
“We advise the Police, APC and their sponsors to play by the rules. We will no longer tolerate the often intimidation and deployment of brute forces against the party and their personnel. We demand they put a stop to abuse of power and respect the rights and privileges of other political parties, particularly, the Labour Party to contest for power,” Abure said.
The Labour Party sank into a deeper crisis on Wednesday after two different courts in Edo State and in Abuja gave two conflicting orders on whether Abure and some other officials can continue to hold their positions.
While the court in Benin restrained Abure and others from being removed pending the determination of the case, the Abuja court stopped them from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
On Wednesday, Justice Hamza Muazu of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory had granted an order stopping Abure; the national secretary, Farouk Ibrahim; the national organising secretary, Clement Ojukwu, and one other person from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
The court made the order in Abuja while ruling in an ex-parte application argued by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, James Ogwu Onoja.
Onoja had, in the application, informed the court how the restrained national officers allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court, Abuja, to carry out unlawful substitutions in the last general elections. Among the documents were the receipts, seal and affidavits of the court to carry out criminal activities.
The senior lawyer, who tendered several documents, told the judge that the chief registrar of the court had written the Labour Party to disown several documents used for the alleged criminal activities by Abure and three others.
Onoja said that following their indictment by a police investigation, the four people are to be arraigned in court and that warrants for their arrest had already been obtained.
In a brief ruling, Justice Muazu held that the application and the supporting affidavits made a good case for the request to be granted.
He subsequently ordered that the four people should immediately stop parading themselves as national officers of the Labour Party.
Also on Wednesday, the national secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farouk, revealed that the State High Court sitting in Benin had restrained Labour Party and all its members from any suspension or purported suspension of its national officers till the determination of the motion on notice.
The secretary said the Labour Party’s lawyer, G. C. Igbokwe, had confirmed to journalists that he had got a High Court order that status quo is maintained and that no action should proceed which may result in the suspension of any national officer of the party.
The party quoted the senior advocate to have said: “Our attention has been drawn to a latter order purportedly from another court of equal jurisdiction restraining my clients. Of course, such order is of no consequence and will have no effect until after the determination of the motion on notice.”
The entire leadership of Labour Party in Edo State, including the state, local government and ward executives, had on Monday passed a vote of confidence on Abure, who was allegedly suspended by a factional group of the party.
The party recalled that some persons, who claimed to be ward executives of the party in Edo State, led by the ward’s chairman, Martins Osigbemhe, had earlier announced the suspension of the LP national chairman.
However, in a solidarity visit to Abure at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja, the chapters said the Osigbemhe faction was unknown to the party and was working for opposition political parties.
Kelly Ogbaloi, chairman of the Edo State chapter of the party, told newsmen that the constitution of the party did not empower any group or party members to suspend a national officer.
Ogbaloi said that since Abure was elected by a national convention, “imposters who are not registered party members cannot suspend him, so their action is out of ignorance. Those who did it don’t even understand the message they were asked to deliver.”
