The Julius Abure leadership of the Labour Party has said it will immediately appeal the judgement of the Federal High Court in FCT which gave recognition to Esther Nenadi Usman’s Caretaker Committee.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, the court misinterpreted the April 4, 2025, verdict of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to declare a former Minister of Finance, and a non registered member of the Labour Party, Esther Nenadi Usman, as the Caretaker chairman of the party which is alien to the Labour Party Constitution.
In a statement issued in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, the party held that the judgement was a clear contradiction against the Supreme Court judgement which clearly stated that no court has the power to appoint leadership for any political party and that leadership issue is an internal affairs of the political party.
The party said it is happy that the Federal High Court of the FCT is not the last court, and that the party will go on appeal and put its position before the Court of Appeal.
According to the party’s spokesperson, “Although we are yet to see the Certified True Copy of the judgment in order to fully make comment about it, our position will become stronger when we see the CTC of the judgement. But generally, from the brief we have gotten so far, it is clear that the party will appeal the judgement.
“Before today’s judgment, we have been suspecting that it may go this way because of the body language around the court. When the matter was first filed, it was assigned to Justice Omotosho and suddenly, there was a sumarsult, as another matter was filed which was impari material and the one sent to Omotosho was withdrawn and now sent to Justice Peter Lifu. That was a red flag for us.
“Secondly, the court refused us the opportunity to respond to issues raised in the counter affidavit filed by other parties and quickly adjourned for judgement. That was the second red flag.
“Our adversaries were all over the places, jubilating weeks before, over a judgement that has not been delivered, telling everyone that they have already won. The jubilation by our adversaries was all over the social media, that come today the judiciary will hand over the party to Dr. Alex Otti.
“Now coming to look at the judgement itself, Nigerians should remember that the Court of Appeal pronounced Julius Abure’s National Working Committee as the authentic leadership of the party.
That pronouncement was what Nenadi Usman took to the Supreme Court to say that the courts (Federal High Court and Appeal Court) were wrong to have pronounced somebody as the Chairman of the Party. Ironically, today, a Federal High Court has sumarsulted and pronounced somebody as the Caretaker National Chairman of a party. So what is the judiciary turning into?
“To us, that was a clear contradiction against what the Supreme Court said. Secondly, the Supreme Court said that all matters that have to do with the leadership of the political party are internal affairs of the party and that has been the position of the Supreme Court.
“The courts have severely declined jurisdiction on matters that have to do with internal affairs of political parties. Looking at the judgement itself, in one breath, the court said the Caretaker Committee was properly set up, in another breath, the court said, it was an internal affair of a political party. In any event, the court was even wrong to be interpreting the decision of the Supreme Court.
“Secondly, even the Supreme Court never said that our tenure has expired. The supreme Court simply declined jurisdiction in entertaining the matter because it was an internal affairs of the party.
“In any event, the tenure of the executive had never expired. The tenure of the executive was to expire in June 2024 but the National Convention was held in March, 2024 before the expiration of the then executive, which created the present leadership of the party. So for the court to have stated that the tenure has expired and a vacuum created are all laughable.”
“It is curious at how this court arrived at holding that there was a vacuum in the leadership of the party when it didn’t go into the validity and legality of the national convention of the party held on March 27th, 2024.
The party however urged its members to remain calm as the leadership will do everything within the laws to ensure that justice is served for the interest of the party.
It warned that the party is not for sale and no amount of financial power will make us abdicate our leadership position in the party.
