The Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party (LP) has faulted Wednesday’s Abuja Federal High Court judgment, which recognised the Interim National Working Committee (INWC) chaired by Senator Nenadi Usman as the authentic leadership of the party.

Justice Peter Lifu, in the judgment, upheld Usman’s INWC as the recognised body to oversee the affairs of the LP.

However, in its reaction, the Abure-led NWC claimed that the court “misinterpreted the April 4, 2025, verdict of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to declare a former Minister of Finance, and a non-registered member of the Labour Party, Esther Nenadi Usman, as the Caretaker chairman of the party, which is alien to the Labour Party Constitution.”

The Abure-led NWC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, stated that the judgment was “a clear contradiction against the Supreme Court judgment, which clearly stated that no court has the power to appoint leadership for any political party and that leadership issue is an internal affairs of the political party.”

It noted that since the FCT court is a court of first instance, it would appeal the judgment at the Court of Appeal.

The NWC stated, “Although, we are yet to see the Certified True Copy of the judgment to fully comment on it, our position will become stronger when we see the CTC of the judgment. But generally, from the brief we have gotten so far, it is clear that the party will appeal the judgment.

“Before today’s judgment, we have been suspecting that it may go this way because of the body language around the court. When the matter was first filed, it was assigned to Justice Omotosho, and suddenly, there was a summons, as another matter was filed, which was an important matter, and the one sent to Omotosho was withdrawn and now sent to Justice Peter Lifu. That was a red flag for us.

“Secondly, the court refused us the opportunity to respond to issues raised in the counter-affidavit filed by other parties and quickly adjourned for judgment. That was the second red flag.

“Our adversaries were all over the place, jubilating weeks before, over a judgment that has not been delivered, telling everyone that they have already won. The jubilation by our adversaries was all over social media, that today the judiciary will hand over the party to Dr. Alex Otti.

“Now, coming to look at the judgment itself, Nigerians should remember that the Court of Appeal pronounced Julius Abure’s National Working Committee as the authentic leadership of the party. That pronouncement was what Nenadi Usman took to the Supreme Court to say that the courts (Federal High Court and Appeal Court) were wrong to have pronounced somebody as the Chairman of the Party. Ironically, today, a Federal High Court has somersaulted and pronounced somebody as the Caretaker National Chairman of a party. So what is the judiciary turning into?

“To us, that was a clear contradiction of what the Supreme Court said. Secondly, the Supreme Court said that all matters that have to do with the leadership of the political party are internal affairs of the party, and that has been the position of the Supreme Court.

“The courts have severely declined jurisdiction on matters that have to do with the internal affairs of political parties. Looking at the judgment itself, in one breath, the court said the Caretaker Committee was properly set up, in another breath, the court said it was an internal affair of a political party. In any event, the court was wrong to interpret the decision of the Supreme Court.

“Secondly, even the Supreme Court never said that our tenure has expired. The Supreme Court simply declined jurisdiction in entertaining the matter because it was an internal matter of the party.

“In any event, the tenure of the executive had never expired. The tenure of the executive was to expire in June 2024 but the National Convention was held in March, 2024 before the expiration of the then executive, whichh created the present leadership of the party. So for the court to have stated that the tenure has expired and a vacuum created are all laughable.”

“It is curious at how this court arrived at holding that there was a vacuum in the leadership of the party when it didn’t go into the validity and legality of the national convention of the party held on March 27th, 2024.”

It urged members to remain calm as it pursued the appeal. (Nigerian Tribune)