Court of appeal affirmed the primary conducted by Apapa faction of LP in Imo, Kogi, & Bayelsa–Mawah

Ahead of the governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states, Monday Mawah, a lawyer representing the Labour Party, shared key information during an interview with Channels TV. He discussed a recent Court of Appeal ruling that has significant implications for the party’s candidates.

Mawah clarified that the Court of Appeal’s decision favored the candidates who emerged from the primaries organized by the faction led by Lamidi Apapa within the Labour Party. The court regarded these candidates as the legitimate choices for the party.

The Appeal Court’s decision had a basis: a court order issued on April 5th. This order specifically prohibited Julius Abure, from the opposing faction, from presenting himself as the national chairman of the Labour Party. Mawah emphasized that the primaries conducted by Abure’s faction were not acknowledged by the Court of Appeal due to his defiance of the court order.

In Mawah’s explanation, he highlighted that the Court of Appeal in Owerri had upheld the validity of the candidates selected through Lamidi Apapa’s faction. These candidates had been chosen during primaries that occurred on the 16th. The court’s endorsement applied not only to Imo State but also extended to Kogi and Bayelsa.

For context, the Labour Party had faced internal conflicts. Earlier, on April 5th, the FCT High Court in Abuja had restricted Abure and other principal party officers from representing themselves as national officers. Despite this court order, Abure proceeded to conduct screening and primaries for the three states on April 15th. In contrast, Apapa’s faction adhered to the court’s directive. They postponed their primaries from the 15th to the 16th and carried them out in the specified states. Given the situation, Abure’s faction organized primaries in defiance of the court’s restraining order. Consequently, a legal dispute arose. One of the aspirants from Abure’s faction contested the outcome of their primaries. In response, the Federal High Court in Owerri declared the primaries conducted by Apapa’s faction as legally valid. The court reasoned that Abure’s faction had disobeyed the court’s order by conducting primaries when they were restrained.

In reaction to the Federal High Court’s ruling, Abure’s faction filed an appeal. However, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Federal High Court, reaffirming the validity of the primaries led by Lamidi Apapa’s faction within the Labour Party.

According to him: “What happened is that the Court of Appeal in Owerri affirmed all the candidates that emerged from Lamidi Apapa-led faction primaries for Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa. The court confirmed that the candidate candidates that emerged from Apapa-led primaries that took place on 16th are the valid candidates for the gubernatorial elections coming up on 11, November in Imo State and of course which also includes Kogi State and Bayelsa. For those that have not been following the Labour Party crisis, the FCT High Court sitting in Abuja on the 5th of April 2023 restrained Abure and other principal officers of the Labour Party from parading themselves as national officers of the party pending the determination of a suit before the court.

He continued: “On the 11th, Abure in disobedience to that order of court conducted a screening for candidates that were to participate in the party primary on the 15th in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi State. Then on the 15th Abure went ahead to conduct primary in the three states. Unfortunately, Apapa wrote a letter to INEC in his capacity as the acting national chairman of the party that we have shifted our primary from the 15th to the 16th and then we went to Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa and conducted primaries on the 16th. Unfortunately, in disobedience to the order of the court, Abure and his group conducted their primary on the 15th while he was still under a restraining order of the court and one of the aspirants went to court to challenge the outcome of the primaries. The Federal High Court sitting in Owerri ruled that it is only the primaries conducted by the Apapa-led faction that is valid in the eye of the law because at the time Abure conducted his primary on the 15th, he had already been restrained by the court. So Abure’s faction was dissatisfied with the judgement so they filed an appeal and the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the Federal High Court”.

Check the video (7:40)

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