•Apapa faction blames Abure’s high-handedness for judgment’s outcome
•It’s PDP Ignoble lies, says media adviser •Kano Court order is laughable – Uwazuruike

The leadership of the Labour Party has expressed shock with the judgement against its party by a state high court in Kano that annulled the elections of its party members into various political offices across the 36 states of the federation.

The party through a statement by its acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, took exception to the speed with which Justice M N Yunusa of Kano High Court discharged its duties as the appearance and judgement in the matter brought before it by suspended members of the party loyal to the former Deputy National Chairman, Lamidi Apapa lasted only 48 hours.

The Court in Suit No FHC/KN/CS/107/2023 filed by Mr. Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ruled that the failure of the Labour Party to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primaries renders the process invalid.

It also ruled that the party having not complied with the provisions of the electoral act cannot be said to have a candidate in an election and cannot be declared winner of an election.

According to Ifoh, Labour party, which is mentioned as a respondent was not aware of any suit against it in Kano State, as the party was not served with any summons.

He stated that the former National Legal Adviser, Samuel Akingbade Oyelekan, has since ceased being an officer of the party and his appearance for the party is not with any authorisation from the leadership of the party’s National Working Committee.

“On hearing the evil agenda of Apapa’s plot, the party directed one of its counsels to appear on its behalf, an attempt that was rejected by the judge, who went ahead to give judgement against the party.

The statement described the judgement as not only inconsequential but also laughable and holds no water.

In the same vein, former Attorney General of Abia State, Chief Umeh Kalu, has described the judgement sacking the Abia State Governor-elect as inconsequential because Otti was not a party to the suit.

“I have seen the judgement. You cannot make an order to anybody that is not a party before you.”

Meanwhile, the Lamidi Apapa faction of Labour Party (LP) has asked party members to hold the suspended chairman of the party, Julius Abure, for the court judgement sacking Otti and other elected party candidates.

The factional National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi, expressed concern that the party is faced with imminent threat of losing its only governor-elect to Abure’s shady practice.

The Media Adviser to Abia State Governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma, has described the purported sacking of Otti yesterday by the Federal High Court in Kano as baseless, unfounded and misleading and thus should be ignored.

In a statement he read out to journalists, yesterday, at Umuahia, he accused the state PDP of sponsoring the widely circulated sack.

He said that for the records though the perpetrators targeted the Abia governor-elect and the people of the state for that legal coup, they were not courageous enough to confront Otti in the open, hence the governor-elect was never joined as a party for fear that his eminently qualified lawyers would take the perpetrators to the cleaners.

To put the records straight and reassure Otti’s teeming supporters and millions of Abia state residents whom he said are still celebrating the liberation of Abia State, the Media Adviser stated emphatically that the Federal High Court in Kano did not issue any order on Abia Labour Party candidates nor the governor-elect, Dr. Alex Otti because, unlike those who brought the suit to steal Abia peoples’ mandate, the court was conscious of its powers and carefully not to fall into the booby trap set for it by the PDP and Abia State government.

According to Ekeoma, in the next few days, Otti would be sworn in as governor to enable him commence the process of rebuilding and recovering Abia State that was destroyed and plundered by the PDP.

He, therefore, enjoined Abia citizens to ignore the fake report claiming that Otti has been sacked by a High Court in Kano.

Similarly, a senior lawyer, Chief Goddy Uwazuruike, yesterday, stated that making an order against a person who is not a party to a suit in court is alien to the country’s legal system, stressing that the order against Otti is laughable.

Uwazuruike stated that he doubted if the judgment existed in form and substance.

“The plaintiff did not disclose his locus standi in Abia State election. It is a pre-election matter, which should have been brought not later than 14 days after the primaries.

“This originating summons were filed after the election of the candidates had been done and dusted. Therefore, the candidates ought to be made parties to this suit.

“There was no evidence of service of the originating documents on any party. There is no record of any respondent filing a response.

There is no record of any lawyer for the respondent being present in court,” he said

Uwazuruike thus wondered how an originating summons could be filed, argued and judgment delivered in seven days, stressing that even the language of the order was not judicial.