THE COURT OF APPEAL DID NOT DECLARE LAMIDI APAPA AS LABOUR PARTY NATIONAL CHAIRMAN; SENATOR ATHAN ACHONU IS THE ONLY AND AUTHENTIC IMO LABOUR PARTY CANDIDATE.

The Senator Athan Achonu Campaign Organization has observed with disappointment, the desperate frenzy with which some persons have saturated the public space with the fake news that a Court of Appeal has declared Lamidi Apapa as the National Chairman of the Labour Party and also sacked Senator Achonu as the Imo Labour Party governorship candidate for the November 11 gubernatorial election.

This widely circulated news report, which sadly picked on Senator Athan Achonu particularly, as the only name mentioned amongst the other Labour Party guber candidates in Kogi and Bayelsa States, had no corroborating excerpt from the judgment to this effect and did not also name the Appeal Court Justices, who delivered this purported ruling.

This disturbingly, calls to question the understanding, transparency, and objectivity of legal reportage, especially as it concerns the interpretation of certain rulings and the context and circumstances under which they were made.

The Senator Athan Achonu Campaign Organization hereby states categorically that the Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, DID NOT DECLARE LAMIDI APAPA AS THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE LABOUR PARTY. THE COURT ALSO DID NOT NULLIFY THE ELECTION OF SENATOR ATHAN ACHONU AS THE AUTHENTIC IMO LABOUR PARTY GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE FOR THE NOVEMBER 11 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION.

Of course, we know why Senator Athan Achonu has been mentioned specifically, after the hugely successful flag-off of his governorship campaign, attended by Barr. Julius Abure, the National Chairman of our party, His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, the phenomenal beacon of a new P
political order in Nigeria, the inimitable jinx breaker, Dr. Alex Otti, Governor of Abia State, as well as the creme-de-la-creme of the Labour leadership across the country.

We are also very much aware of the people, who have put out this erroneous and misleading information, with such brazen impunity, in the public space.

Here below are the true and proper facts of the matter, as it concerns the authentic Imo State Labour Party gubernatorial candidate:

1. Barr. Julius Abure, in his legitimate capacity as National Chairman of the Labour Party, had already set the machinery in motion and constituted the Governorship Election Primaries Committees to conduct Primaries for Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi States before a procured Court Order challenging his chairmanship of the party.
2. Lamidi Apapa, having instituted the litigation, quickly imposed himself and his cohorts as Acting National Executive of the party, without clearance or endorsement from the National Executive Council, NEC, of the Labour Party, which is the highest decision-making body of the party or the National Convention where such decisions, as the leadership of the party is endorsed, following the party’s constitution. He proceeded to conduct primary elections with illegitimate officials not approved by the party, in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi States, respectively, in his unrecognized capacity as an Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party.
3. Several top guber aspirants of Imo Labour Party, including Senator Athan Achonu, were duly screened, cleared and fully participated in April 15, 2023, Imo Labour Party Governorship Primaries, which was held at Landmark Event Centre and was conducted by the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, with several top members and elected officers of the National Assembly and party leadership across the state and country, serving as members of the Committee and ensured that the exercise followed due process.
4. Senator Athan Achonu emerged as the winner and duly elected governorship candidate of Imo State Labour Party, scoring 134 votes to defeat fifteen other candidates, including Major General Lincoln Jack Ogunewe (retd), who scored 125 votes to place second, as well as Martin Agbaso -13 votes; Nwagwu Kelechi -9 votes; Dr. David Mbamara – 5 votes; Sir Maduka Basil – 1 vote; Ndidi Amike -1, Ike C. Ibeh-2, AIG Ugommuo -1. The Chairman of the Imo State Labour Party Governorship Primary Election Panel and Abia then Governor-elect, Dr. Alex Otti, declared the result, after the keenly contested primaries.

It is also important to point out here, that General Lincoln Ogunewe, dissatisfied with the result, immediately defected to another political party where he has purportedly been handed the governorship ticket to run as a gubernatorial candidate on the platform of that party, for the November 11 gubernatorial election. All other aspirants for the Labour Party ticket accepted the result and threw their weight behind Achonu, the winner, and have been active in all the party’s affairs in this regard.

5. It was later reported that Chief Ikechukwu Joseph Ukaegbu had emerged winner at a primary election conducted by the Lamidi Apapa election panel, held on Sunday, April 16, 2023, led by Alhaji Mohammed Alkali Ibrahim, acting National Vice chairman of the party, North East of Labour party appointed by Apapa, at the Arts Nouveau Centre, Owerri, in an affirmative election where his only challenger, Barr. Ihechi Ike stepped down for him.
6. However, Mr. Basil Maduka, who participated in the April 15 Imo guber election primaries, conducted by the legitimate Barr. Julius Abure’s primary election panel, went to court, to challenge the April 16, Apapa conducted Imo Guber primaries, which he did not participate in.
7. After considering the evidence before him, Justice B. O. Quadri, in his judgment, held that the primary election that produced Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph was not held on April 15, but on April 16. Justice Quadri also ruled that the plaintiff, Basil Maduka, was never an aspirant in the nomination process for the April 16 exercise and he never participated in the primary election.
8. Therefore, the learned Justice Quadri stated that the plaintiff (Maduka) lacked the locus standi to institute the case against the defendant (Ukaegbu) in a process that he did not participate in.
9. In other words, the validity of the Lamidi Apapa conducted primary election is because the plaintiff did not participate in the process and, therefore, cannot challenge what he was not a part of. Basil Maduka’s case would have had locus standi if he had brought it against the result of the April 15, Imo guber primaries which he participated in, and not against an exercise he was not involved with.

That was the judgment of the Bayelsa/Owerri Federal High Court, which has now been re-affirmed by the Court of Appeal, Owerri sitting in Abuja, following Basil Maduka’s appeal against the Bayelsa matter.

10. According to the certified true copy of the judgment in the case: APPEAL N0: CA/OWI200/2023, on Thursday, August 24, 2023, which is now in our possession, Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole, who delivered the lead judgment, had already established the ground of appeal thus: “The 1st – 3rd Respondents (Labour Party, INEC and Chief Joseph Ukaegbu) on their part, distilled a lone issue for determination thus: Whether the Plaintiff/Appellant (Basil Maduka) participated in the Governorship primary of the 1st Respondent (Labour Party) conducted in Imo State on 16/4/2023.

“A careful appraisal of the issues distilled for determination by the two sides vis-à-vis the grounds of appeal and the judgment of the lower court on appeal, herein points to the first issue of the Appellant which corresponds with the lone issue of the 1st and 3rd Respondents as the only Live issue to be resolved in this appeal. I shall therefore proceed with it accordingly,” he had declared.

The Court then established that” “to challenge the outcome of a primary election, the plaintiff (Basil Maduka) must show that he participated
in the said primary but that in this instance the Appellant failed to show
that he participated in the 1 Respondent’s (Labour Party) primary election conducted on the 16th April 2023 and cannot therefore lawfully challenge its outcome” Reference: ANYAKORAH VS PDP (supra).

Explaining the issue of Locus standi as it concerns Basil Maduka and his appeal, the Court held that “Locus standi is the ground upon which a Plaintiff or Claimant stands to maintain an action. It denotes the legal capacity to institute an action in a court of law. Locus standi goes to the competence of a Plaintiff or Claimant to institute and maintain an action which thereby implies that the absence of a requisite locus standi robs the Court of the jurisdiction to adjudicate on the subject of litigation. It is therefore a threshold issue that goes to the jurisdiction of the court to adjudicate over the action.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Joseph Olubunni Kayode Oyewole said: “The Appellant failed to show that he participated in the primary election organized by the 1st Respondent which was held on the 16th April 2023 from which the 3rd Respondent emerged as the winner and cannot be heard to complain about the outcome thereof.

“I therefore agree with the lower
court that the Appellant was bereft of the requisite locus standi to maintain
the action and I resolve this issue against the Appellant and in favour of
the 1st and 3rd Respondents. The remaining two issues of the Appellant
have been rendered academic and shall be appropriately discountenanced.
In totality, I find no merit in this appeal and I dismiss it accordingly.
A cost of N250,000.00 is awarded in favour of the 1st and 3d
Respondents against the Appellant.”

The other two Justices of the Court of Appeal; Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumein (JCA) and Ridwan Maiwada Abdullahi, (JCA), unanimously agreed that Basil Maduka’s appeal was devoid of merit and equally dismissed it and also abode by all the consequential orders in the leading judgment, including the order as to costs in favour of the 1st and 3rd Respondents against the Appellant.

11. The court only pronounced that since Basil Maduka did not take part in the April 16th Imo guber primaries conducted by Lamidi Apapa, he had no locus standi to challenge that process/exercise. The court did not in a way, form, or direct pronouncement, pass judgment on the April 15 guber primaries conducted by the Barr. Julius Abure Primary Election Panel headed by Dr. Alex Otti, because this matter has absolutely nothing to do with the April 15 Imo Guber Primaries, which incidentally, Basil Maduka participated in and lost.
12. The validity of the April 15, Imo Guber Primaries conducted by Julius Abure is not in doubt and was never challenged before the court in this particular matter, involving Basil Maduka and Chief Ikechukwu Ukaegbu. Senator Achonu was not even a party in the matter and he was neither invited nor joined by the parties at any stage of the litigation, both at the Federal and Appeal Court stages.
13. Rather, Senator Achonu had, on his own volition, sought to join the matter at the Appeal Court since the judgment at the Federal High Court was wrongly manipulated and interpreted by the opposition to imply that the mere comments of the trial judge, Justice Quadri was a JUDGEMENT.

However, the Appeal Court in dismissing the application for joinder had stated clearly that Senator Achonu was not a party to the matter and his decision to join was unnecessary.

14. The Appeal Court also held in its latest judgment, that the mere comments of the trial judge were not a JUDGEMENT and should be discountenanced, which implies that the kernel of the dismissal of Basil Maduka’s case and the validation of the April 16 guber primary, was strictly based on Maduka’s non-participation in that exercise, which automatically denies him the locus standi to even challenge the process.
15. So, we are at a loss to fathom which judgment in particular, the viral news report that the Court of Appeal has sacked Julius Abure as Labour Party National Chairman in favour of Lamidi Apapa emanated from. We are also wondering which Court of Appeal judgment the media reports were referring to that Senator Athan Achonu has been removed as the authentic Imo Labour Party governorship candidate for the November 11 gubernatorial election.

Finally, we are yet to see the Court of Appeal judgment where the Justices of the court directed INEC to immediately publish the names of candidates that emerged from the Lamidi Apapa conducted primaries in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa States, for the November election.

16., according to the Certified True Copy of the August 24 Court of Appeal Judgement, we can categorically state that Lamidi Apapa and his cohorts not only committed gross slander and libel against the learned and distinguished Justices of the Court of Appeal, by publishing the falsehood of what they did not say in the judgment, they also deceived the unsuspecting media establishments by issuing a completely false, misleading and dangerously inciting and provocative press release, which various respected and well-established newspapers ran with banner headlines, declaring boldly that the Appeal Court has sacked Julius Abure and affirmed Lamidi Apapa, as the National Chairman of Labour Party and also that the Appeal Court dismissed Senator Athan Achonu, the governorship candidate of Imo State and others from the Abure-led faction of the Labour Party and ordered INEC to publish the names of those that emerged from Apapa’s primaries.

This blatant falsehood and FAKE NEWS trended widely on all media platforms until we got the Certified True Copy of the judgment and have now unmasked the liars and merchants of fake news by stating the facts of what transpired at the Court of Appeal on Thursday, August 24, 2023.

17. Let us also state categorically and for purposes of clarification, that the only person who has challenged the April 15 Imo Guber Primaries and judgment has been given, is Kenneth Agbim, who participated in the exercise as a delegate during that election. Agbim had approached the Federal High Court to challenge the victory of Senator Athan Achonu in the April 15, 2023, Imo Labour Party Guber Primaries on several grounds, including non-compliance to the electoral law and the party’s constitution, during the conduct of the primary election.
18. But in a judgement delivered by Justice J.K Omotosho, on Wednesday, 19th July 2023, the court dismissed Kenneth Agbim’s suit filed against the election of Sen. Achonu because it lacked merit and locus standi.
19. The court, citing several sections of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, including sections 223 (I) and 84 (1), (2 ) (5) of the Electoral Act 2022, declared that the primary election was conducted in full compliance of the law and constitution of the party and Senator Athan Achonu was properly and validly elected, as the Imo Labour Party governorship candidate for the November election, thus validating the April 15, Imo Guber Primaries conducted by Barr. Julius Abure.
20. We also want to place on record categorically, that the only subsisting Court of Appeal judgment, where a clear, direct, and unequivocal pronouncement on who is the authentic National Chairman of the Labour Party, is the one delivered by the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, the Edo State capital on August 14, 2023, in the case of Lucky Shaibu v. Julius Abure & 5 Others (Appeal No: CA/B/93/2023). The court reached this conclusion below.

*A panel of judges, made up of Justices Theresa Ngolika Orji Abadua, Fatima Omoro Akinbami, and Sybil O. Nwaka-Gbagi, unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by the appellant, Lucky Shaibu, in favour of Abure. In the lead ruling, Justice Abadua upheld the ruling of the High Court of Edo State and ruled that the national chairman of the Labour Party cannot be suspended by a single individual.

• The court ruling was made in accordance with Articles 13 and 17 of the Constitution of the Party and the extant Electoral Act of 2022, particularly when the appellant has been described by the party as unknown. As a result, the court nullified the previous suspension imposed on Abure, along with all subsequent actions carried out against both Abure and the party, following the suspension.
• This is the only legal matter directly involving Lamidi Apapa and Julius Abure in which the superior court gave a clear and unambiguous ruling that Barr. Julius Abure is the authentic National Chairman of the Labour Party and all subsequent actions carried out against both Abure and the party, following the contested suspension, including the conduct of the April 16 Imo Guber Primaries, from which Chief Ikechukwu Joseph Ukaegbu emerged, as well as similar exercises in Bayelsa and Kogi, have all been nullified.
• Recall also that in April this year, the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Labour Party, which is the highest decision-making body of the party, after the national convention, held its NEC-in-Session meeting, in Asaba the Delta State capital.

In a statement signed by the Deputy National Chairman, Comrade Ladi lliya, and the Deputy National Secretary and Acting Youth Leader, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, the NEC extended the tenure of the Barr. Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) by 12 months and also suspended Lamidi Apapa, Alhaji Salem Lawal, Prince Favour Reuben, Gbenga Daramola, Samuel Akingbade, and Mohammed Akali, for alleged anti-party activities.

NEC also considered the report of a disciplinary committee, which recommended the suspension of the former National Youth Leader, Anslem Eragbe, and following this consideration, it suspended Andslem Eragbe indefinitely and recommended Eragbe to the next convention for expulsion.

The Labour Party NEC equally ratified the appointment of Kennedy Ahanotu as the new National Youth Leader, Obiora Ifoh as Acting National Publicity Secretary, Barr. Edun Kehinde as Acting National Legal Adviser, Rotimi Kehinde as Acting Deputy National Secretary, and Anthony Ezeagwu as Acting National Chairman, South-South.

The NEC meeting was attended by key stakeholders, including the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, National Assembly members-elect, INEC, NLC, and TUC.

In conclusion, Lamidi Apapa, following the decision of the Labour Party NEC, was and remains suspended. Also, concerning the authentic Imo Labour Party Governorship candidate for the November 11 Gubernatorial election, any other manipulated, twisted, inferred, or illegitimately claimed court judgment, by any other individuals, either by misinterpreted proxy or by sponsored or calculated mischief is null and void and of no consequence. Senator Athan Achonu is the authentic guber candidate of the Imo Labour Party.

Indeed, we base our unwavering conviction on references to the already listed and established court rulings both by the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, Barr. Julius Abure is the authentic National Chairman of the Labour Party and Senator Athan Achonu is the legitimately elected, authentic Imo State Labour Party governorship candidate for the November 11 gubernatorial election.

The courts have spoken.

However, it has become obvious to every discerning mind that Achonu is the man to beat, hence the deployment of insipid hirelings to weave silly concoctions about him in the hope that they would pull him down. Their evil schemes have continued to fail and shall keep failing because Achonu’s antecedents have made him the people’s choice and unassailable.

The quest for a new free and prosperous Imo is ‘Athanable’.

Chibuikem Diala
Director, Media
Senator Athan Achonu Campaign Organisation.