The leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) has come to an end as the Supreme Court has given Lamidi Apapa the wrong end of the stick.
The apex court apart from legitimising Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the party, also affirmed Sen. Athan Achonu as the Party’s authentic candidate for the November 11 gubernatorial election in Imo State.
In a statement, Obiora Ifoh, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, explained that one Basil Maduka had gone to the apex court to contest the Labour Party’s rightful candidate for the Imo state governorship election.
However, a panel of five justices led by Justice Inyang Okoro dismissed the suit, cautioning the appellant for abusing court process and wasting the time of the courts all through from the lower courts.
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Two other respondents in the matter were Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the Lamidi Apapa-led candidate, Joseph Ukaegbu, alias Ikenga, whose request to seek for a consequential order was also rejected by the Supreme Court.
With this judgement by the highest court in Nigeria, Lamidi Apapa’s plot to hijack the affairs of the Labour Party, including the powers to nominate candidates has finally come to an end.
Speaking to the media shortly after the judgment, the counsel to the Labour Party, Barrister Okwudili Anozie, said the antics of Basil Maduka and his accomplice, Joseph Ukaegbu, alias Ikenga, were put to an end, as they met their Waterloo at the Apex Court.
He described the outcome as a culmination of their deceit and lies to Imolites, spanning from their misrepresentation of the true position of the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.
Upon the exposure and collapse of their lies before the Supreme Court today, Basil’s Counsel, with tails in between his legs, immediately withdrew his subterfuge appeal that was aimed at giving credence to Ukaegbu’s sham and non-existent primaries.
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It is important to state that the Supreme Court didn’t entertain Ukaegbu’s counsel’s ignorant attempt to seek for a consequential order to make Ukaegbu the authentic candidate of the party, which even a first year student of law knows cannot be sought by a respondent, especially in this case where the appeal was dismissed.
Indeed, today has been a day of reckoning for evil doers whose sole plan was to stop the aspiration of Imolites in their determination to Take Back Imo through Senator Athan Nneji Achonu.
Recall that Apapa and his group, comprising former members of the party had consistently claimed that Abure was suspended by his ward in Edo State and hence was no longer recognised as such, a claim that the party debunked.
Unfortunately, despite earlier court pronouncements, Apapa was unrelenting and always found reasons to misinterpret and misrepresent the rulings of the courts.
The main target of their antics was the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in Imo State, Senator Athan Nneji Achonu.
They kept thrusting up other candidates, claiming they were authentic without respect to court judgements to the contrary.
Their obsession with Imo gave rise to speculations that they were being sponsored by Hope Uzodinma’s ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, government in the state to confuse the electorate.
However, the Supreme Court has proved once again that the judiciary despite its teething challenges, remains the last hope of the common man
With this ruling, truth has prevailed. Therefore, the Senator Athan Nneji Achonu Campaign Council assures Ndi Imo that they now have a clear choice to follow the light, as the thick darknes, pervading the state has begun to filter away and shall be ultimately dispelled on November 11 when Achonu, the new helmsman shall be elected to govern the state.
Recall that Maduka had dragged Ukaegbu before the Federal High Court, Owerri over the outcome of gubernatorial primaries conducted by the Apapa-led faction of the Labour party. That suit was dismissed on the ground that Maduka had no locus standi to challenge the outcome of the primaries.
He proceeded to the Court of Appeal in Abuja where the case was also trashed, resulting in the appeal to Supreme Court where they wanted Ukaegbu to be declared candidate of the party.
Nevertheless, the apex court in its wisdom dismissed both Maduka’s appeal and the application that Ukaegbu wanted to bring.
The apex court also warned Ukaegbu’s lawyer to desist from the sharp practices he had been involved in and stop deceiving the people and misrepresenting the courts..