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Following the general elections in 2023, the Labour Party is experiencing a crisis that has been attributed to the Nigerian judiciary.
In an interview with Channels Television's Sunrise Daily on Thursday, the director general of the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, laid the blame at the feet of the courts.
He claims that the issue was started by a Federal Capital Territory High Court ruling by Justice Hamza Muazu ordering the party's chairman, Julius Abure, and other national executives of the party to stop disguising themselves as national officers of LP.
"Other than the judiciary problem, there is nothing happening in the Labour Party. A judge, or rather, the court, rendered a decision that led to the current crisis inside the Labour Party.
"It was a judge in this case who, at his discretion, stated that Abure, who served as chairman for the presidential, governorship, and state assembly primaries.
"After that, a judge ruled that the chairman should no longer present himself as such. How do you interpret that? And have a look at who approached him with the case.
"The judge could have adopted a more logical stance on the matter that was brought before him because he is a Nigerian and reads newspapers like the rest of us. Does this imply that you may render a decision based on a complaint brought before you by a Labour Party clerk?"
According to Osuntokun, the judge had the option of letting the party chairman continue in his role and allowing the lawsuit to proceed, but he instead adopted a strategy that suggested he was "setting the party up for crisis."
On April 5, Justice Muazu made a decision about an ex-parte application and granted the LP national officials a restraining order. Lamidi Apapa, the party's deputy national chairman, used Justice Muazu's directive to appoint himself the party's interim leader.
On April 6, a counter order was issued by an Edo State High Court sitting in Benin, prohibiting the Labour Party and all of its members from suspending Abure and other national officers until the outcome of the move on notice.
