Osuntokun blamed the judgement by Justice Hamza Muazu for the crisis in Labour Party.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, has blamed the judiciary for the crisis rocking the party after the 2023 general elections.
He said that the judgement by Justice Hamza Muazu of a Federal Capital Territory High Court ordering the party’s Chairman, Julius Abure and other national executives of the party to stop parading themselves as national officers of the party created the crisis currently engulfing the party.
Osuntokun made the declaration on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
According to him, there is nothing going on in the party other than the crisis of the judiciary, adding that it is a judge, the judiciary that made a judgement that is now responsible for creating a crisis in the Labour Party.
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The LP campaign DG said, “It was a judge here, who in his discretion, said that Abure, who has been chairman for the primaries of the presidential, for the governorship, for the state houses of assembly. A judge thereafter gave a judgement that that chairman should no longer parade himself as a chairman. What do you make of that? And look at who and who brought the case to him.
“The judge is a Nigerian, he reads newspapers like the rest of us, he could have taken a more logical position on what was brought before him. Does it mean that if a clerk in the Labour Party brings a complaint before you, you can give a judgement on the basis of that?”
Osuntokun maintained that the judge had the option of allowing the chairman of the party remain in his position and go on with the case, but he rather chose an option showing that he was setting the party up for crisis.
Justice Muazu had in April 5 issued the restraining order to the LP national officers while ruling in ex-parte application.
Following the Abuja court judgement, the Deputy National Chairman of the party (South), Lamidi Apapa, declared himself the acting Chairman of the party.
However, a State High Court sitting in Benin, on April 6, restrained Labour Party and all its members from any suspension of Abure and other national officers till the determination of motion on notice.
In tow, the national leadership of the party, promptly suspended Apapa and other officials in league with him.
LP appointed acting national executive members to replace them and restore sanity to the fold, according to a statement signed by the party’s National Deputy Chairperson Ladi Iliya and Deputy National Secretary Kenedy Ahanotu.
The decision was taken at a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party in Asaba, which was attended National Working Committee (NWC) members.
Also in attendance were LP presidential candidate Peter Obi, state chairmen and secretaries of the party as well as LP National Assembly (NASS) members-elect, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC).
