The High Court, Federal Capital Territory, has fixed May 12 to decide on whether or not to lift the suspension order placed on the Labour Party national chairman, Julius Abure, and other officials of the party.

Justice Hamza Muazu fixed the date after taking arguments and objections from various counsels on the matter.

On April 5, the court had upon an ex parte application restrained Abure, Alhaji Farouk Ibrahim (National Secretary); Oluchi Opara (National Treasurer); and Clement Ojukwu (National Organising Secretary), from further parading themselves as party officials.

Also, on Monday, April 17, Justice Muazu refused to vacate the interim order restraining Abure and the other officials from further parading themselves as national officers of the Labour Party.

This followed a suit challenging Abure and his codefendants’ continued stay in office on grounds of alleged fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Abure and his co-defendants in their preliminary objections maintained that the suit bordered on a leadership crisis.

Thus, they argued through their counsel, Ben Nwosu, that the matter was an internal affair of the party and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

On their part, the claimants, represented by George Ibrahim, asked the court to dismiss the defendant’s preliminary objection and grant their reliefs accordingly for being meritorious.

He informed the court that in spite of the subsisting interim order, the defendants went ahead and held an executive council meeting.

Ibrahim told the court that the claimants had also filed contempt proceedings against Abure, his co-defendants and the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress for allegedly acting in breach of an existing order of the court. (The PUNCH)