The crisis within the Labour Party deepened on Thursday when seven members of the National Working Committee (NWC) announced that National Vice‑Chairman (South) Lamidi Bashir Apapa would serve as acting chairman, replacing the suspended Julius Abure. At the time of this report, stern‑looking police officers had taken over the party’s secretariat.
Speaking after an emergency meeting at the secretariat in Abuja, Apapa said the NWC acted on the judgment of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, which barred Abure from presenting himself as the party’s National Chairman. The court also restrained three other officials—National Secretary Umar Farouk Ibrahim, National Treasurer Oluchi Opara, and National Organising Secretary Clement Ojukwu—over alleged forgery. Justice Hamza Muazu ordered that the court’s originating processes be served on these individuals and granted an interim injunction after finding merit in the ex parte application filed by aggrieved party members.
Apapa told journalists that the NWC reviewed the suspensions of party members and executives previously imposed by the leadership. The three restrained officials were replaced by Alhaji Saleh Lawal (acting National Secretary), Rowland Daramola (acting Treasurer), and Prince Reuben Favour (acting Organising Secretary). “The NWC also noted that some recent suspensions were poorly handled. This meeting has reviewed them, and all suspensions are hereby rescinded, with the officers reinstated,” he said. “Effective immediately, the individuals barred by the court must not present themselves as party officers until their cases are properly addressed.”
Apapa denied allegations that the party had been infiltrated by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), affirming that the current leadership remains firmly supportive of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Earlier, Abure had issued a statement accusing the APC of using thugs and a detachment of the Nigerian Police Force to invade the party’s Abuja headquarters. He claimed the armed invaders dismantled fences, doors and windows to gain access, sacked workers and party members, and aimed to install an illegitimate executive chosen by their sponsors. Abure noted a similar invasion of the Labour Party’s Imo State secretariat, which remains occupied by agents of the Imo state government.
He added that, just the day before, presidential candidate Peter Obi, through the LP Presidential Campaign Council, warned Nigerians of a plot to force him out of the country—a scheme allegedly involving the APC and certain security agents to frame him for treason. “The Labour Party is merely contesting for power. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted an election that placed us third, a result we reject and are challenging before the Tribunal. That is our only offence,” Abure said. He concluded by urging President Muhammadu Buhari to restrain the APC from employing unorthodox methods to suppress political structures in Nigeria.
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