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Blame judiciary for crisis in our party – LP *Hand of Esau, voice of Jacob – Osuntokun
Labour Party (LP), is heaping the blames for the current leadership crisis in the party, which it described as the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob on the Nigerian judiciary, for arming some people whose sole interest is to distabilise the party with the weapon to do some.
Akin Osuntokun, Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (LP-PCC), who made the connection on Thursday, said the judgement by Justice Hamza Muazu of a Federal Capital Territory High Court ordering the party’s Chairman, Julius Abure and other national executives of the party to stop parading themselves as national officers of the party created the crisis currently engulfing the party.
Muazu, who had on April 5 issued the restraining order to the LP national officers while ruling in ex-parte application, which led to the Deputy National Chairman of the party (South), Lamidi Apapa, declaring himself the acting Chairman of the party, also declined to lift the earlier order on April 17.
A day after the Abuja ruling a counter order came from an Edo State High Court sitting in Benin, on April 6, restraining the party and all its members from any suspension of Abure and other national officers till the determination of motion on notice.
At the same time, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), had equally stormed the party secretariat in Abuja, where Joe Ajaero, the President, who led the delegation, warned of dire consequences against Apapa and his factions, who had earlier taken possession of the offices if they did not desist from further causing trouble in the party.
This was followed by a National Congress, called by the Abure-led National Executive Council (NEC), to thrash out the development, which had in attendance Peter Obi, the presidential candidate in the February 25 election, who made some far-reaching statements about the members being steadfast and resilient in their attempt to build what he called a New Nigeria.
Weighing in on the developments, Osuntokun, a guest of Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “There is nothing going on (in Labour Party) other than the crisis of the judiciary. It is a judge, the judiciary that made a judgement that is now responsible for creating a crisis in the Labour Party. It was a judge here, who in his discretion, said that Abure, who has been chairman for the primaries of the presidential, for the governorship, for the state houses of assembly – a judge thereafter gave a judgement that that chairman should no longer parade himself as a chairman. What do you make of that? And look at who and who brought the case to him.
“The judge is a Nigerian, he reads newspapers like the rest of us, he could have taken a more logical position on what was brought before him. Does it mean that if a clerk in the Labour Party brings a complaint before you, you can give a judgement on the basis of that?”
Osuntokun maintained that the judge had the option of allowing the chairman of the party remain in his position and go on with the case, but he rather chose an option showing that he was “setting the party up for crisis.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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