Is Abure Wallowing in a Dream Land?

In what could be described as a joke taken too far, the faction of the Labour Party (LP) led by Julius Abure last week suspended Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, and senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, from the party indefinitely.

The factional National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, who made the announcement, listed other suspended members to include: Darlington Nwokocha, Victor Afam Ogene, Amobi Ogah, and Seyi Sowunmi.

On May 2, the faction inaugurated a five-member disciplinary committee headed by the party’s deputy national chairman, Ayo Olorunfemi, to investigate some members over alleged anti-party activities.

Announcing the report of the disciplinary committee, Farouk said the national executive “ratified the recommendations of the panel”.

Farouk said the Chair of the LP Caretaker Committee, Nenadi Usman, was omitted from the list because she is not a registered member of the party.

The logical questions many analysts have asked are: How can a man sacked from office by the highest court in the country, the Supreme Court, be suspending other leaders of the party? From where did he derive such authority from?

Recently, the Supreme Court sacked Abure and his National Working Committee (NWC) when it set aside earlier decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal that recognised him as the LP National Chairman.

The court held that both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to pronounce Abure as LP national chairman, having earlier found that the substantive issue before the court was party leadership — a matter deemed an internal affair of the party.

It noted that since the case filed at the Federal High Court centred on LP’s leadership, it was not justiciable, and set aside both the trial and appellate court decisions recognising Abure as chairman and struck out the LP’s suit for lack of jurisdiction.

The court alluded that the tenure of Abure as national chairman of the party had expired.

Surprisingly, since after the judgment, Abure held on to his position, claiming the court did sack him.

Many believe that if Nigeria were to be a country where the rule prevails, Abure would have since been told in clear terms by security agencies to stop parading himself as the national chairman of LP.

Where is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in all of this, if one may ask? Is it not aware of the embarrassment Abure and group are causing the polity? Was a copy of the judgment not given to them in the full glare of Nigerians for it to make a pronouncement on the controversy?