The Federal High Court in Abuja has removed Julius Abure from office as the National Chairman of the Labour Party, directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately recognise the Senator Esther Nenadi Usman-led caretaker leadership of the party.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Peter Lifu said the leadership dispute within the Labour Party had already been conclusively settled by the Supreme Court in its April 4, 2025 ruling, which affirmed Usman, a former Minister of Finance, as head of the party’s caretaker committee pending the conduct of the next national convention.
Justice Lifu held that, based on the apex court’s decision, INEC was under a legal obligation to acknowledge the Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee as the legitimate authority authorised to act for and on behalf of the Labour Party.
The court’s decision arose from a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2262/2025, filed by Usman, in which Abure and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) were listed as defendants.
In his ruling, the judge stated that the documents and evidence placed before the court clearly showed that Abure’s tenure as national chairman had elapsed. He rejected Abure’s argument that the dispute was a purely internal party affair beyond the jurisdiction of the court, noting that the issue of leadership tenure was justiciable and had already been determined by the Supreme Court.
Justice Lifu further held that the establishment of a caretaker committee became unavoidable following the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate earlier judgments that had favoured Abure’s continued stay in office.
The leadership crisis in the Labour Party had earlier culminated in the removal of Abure by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), which constituted a 29-member caretaker committee chaired by Nenadi Usman. The decision was taken during an expanded stakeholders’ meeting held in Umuahia, Abia State, and hosted by Abia State Governor, Alex Otti.
The Umuahia meeting, which ratified Abure’s removal, was chaired by the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Abure had subsequently approached the courts to challenge his removal, insisting that he was duly elected and later reaffirmed as national chairman at the party’s national convention held in Nnewi, Anambra State, in March 2024.
While both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal initially ruled in Abure’s favour and ordered INEC to recognise him as chairman, the Supreme Court later overturned those decisions. The apex court upheld the appeal filed by Usman and the secretary of the caretaker committee, Darlington Nwokocha, and cautioned political parties against violating their constitutions and tenure limits.
Wednesday’s ruling by the Federal High Court effectively brings an end to Abure’s leadership claims and clears the way for the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee to formally assume control of the Labour Party’s affairs ahead of its next national convention.
Boluwatife Enome
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