Abure-led LP raises alarm over planned invasion of secretariat

The dispute over the leadership of the Labour Party (LP), remained unresolved at the weekend as the faction led by the National Chairman, Mr Julius Abure, raised the alarm on Sunday about a planned invasion of the Abuja national headquarters by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

It alleged that the NLC planned to mobilise “miscreants” in concert with the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) headed by a former Minister of Finance, Nenadi Usma, and the National Transition Committee (NTC).

The development came as the Usman-led committee insisted on Sunday that Friday’s Supreme Court judgment effectively ended the tenure of Abure as the chairman of the party.

In a statement in Abuja by the National Secretary of the executive led by Abure, Alhaji,
Alhaji Umar Ibrahim, the LP alleged that the planned invasion would begin on April 7th and was reportedly funded by a governor in one of the South-East states.

“During the invasion, the NLC will attempt an unlawful break and entry into offices at the national headquarters to cart away sensitive documents and to also vandalise the properties belonging to the party.

“We view this action, which is capable of breaching the peace of the Federal Capital Territory, as irresponsible and evidence of desperation on the NLC.

“The Labour Union, which the laws that founded it forbids them from partisan politics, has at different occasions in the past mobilized miscreants to desecrate the National Headquarters of the party and vandalized the properties,” the party stated.

Giving its own interpretation of the apex court’s judgment, the Abure-led LP maintained that the court did not sack Abure but merely empowered political parties to resolve leadership issues using internal mechanisms.

It further noted that leadership under Abure already existed and would continue to pilot the affairs of the LP.

The statement reads more, “It must be noted that the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on the 5th of April 2025 is very clear and unambiguous.

“The judgment simply mandates political parties to always resolve their crisis using internal mechanisms and that the issue of leadership is an internal affair of the political parties. There is nowhere in the judgment that gave NLC, National Caretaker Committee, or any other body by whatever nomenclature to take over the leadership of the Labour Party

“There is a leadership in place in the Labour Party, and Barrister Julius Abure, who was validly elected at a convention held in March 2024, still remains the National Chairman of the Labour Party. Any attempt to forcefully usurp the present leadership will be resisted.

“We are by this statement calling on the attention of the security agencies including the Police, and the DSS amongst others to ensure that any activity that is capable of breaching the peace of the FCT must be nipped in the bud and that the masterminds, no matter how high they might be, are apprehended and made to face the full wrath of the law.”

However, the Usman group insisted that the judgment of the apex court was unambiguous and required no further debate.

“The facts that led to this appeal were comprehensively addressed in the body of the judgment.

After reviewing the arguments of counsel, the Supreme Court unanimously held as follows:

The lower court, having found that Relief No. 5 sought by the first respondent, which was predicated on the leadership tussle within the first respondent, was non-justiciable, erred by proceeding further into a matter beyond its jurisdiction, even going so far as to pronounce Barrister Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the first respondent.

“Their Lordships held that the lower court was wrong to have done so. As expressed in the legal maxim: ‘You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.’

“Thus, the trial court’s decision had no legal foundation and deserved to be struck out”, it argued on Sunday.