Saliu Gbadamosi
The controversy surrounding the purported suspension of the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, took a legal turn on Wednesday when Justice Hamza Muazu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) barred the chairman and three other national executive members of the party from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
Justice Muazu, sitting at Maitama, Abuja, issued the order against Abure; the National Secretary, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim; National Organizing Secretary, Mr Clement Ojukwu and one other.
The order was granted in an ex-parte application argued by Chief James Ogwu Onoja SAN, in which he informed the court the affected national officers allegedly forged several documents of the FCT High Court to carry out unlawful substitutions in the recently-held 2023 general election.
According to him, such documents included receipts, seal and affidavits of the court, which he claimed the party officials used to carry out criminal activities.
Onoja, who tendered the alleged forged documents before the court, further told the court that the Chief Registrar of the FCT High Court had written the Labour Party to disown several documents used for the alleged criminal activities by Abure and three others.
The senior advocate told the court that following their indictment by police investigation, the four persons are to be arraigned in court with their arrest warrants already obtained.
Ruling on the application, Justice Muazu held that the application and the supporting affidavits made out a good case for the request to be granted.
He subsequently ordered that the four persons should immediately stop parading themselves as national officers of the Labour Party.
Abure was last week suspended by the ward executive members of LP in Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State over allegations of alleged forgery and anti-party activities.
The ward chairman, Martins Osigbemhe, accused Abure of illegally substituting candidates of the party in the general election.
He added that the national chairman was suspended pending the determination of the numerous petitions and cases against him in the court.
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