Pepple vs Dokubo: Rivers Labour Party gets intense

Dienye Pepple, the factional chairman of the Labour Party in Rivers State, has denied claims that the Rivers State High Court on Monday recognised the group headed by Hilda Dokubo as the party’s official leadership.

After the national leadership of the Labour Party dissolved the Rivers State Executive Council and adopted Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the then governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, in March 2023, the Julius Abure faction of the party appointed Dokubo as the Chairman Steering Committee of the party in the state.

Pepple and his supporters sued the party, Dokubo, and four others for declaring that there is no steering committee in the party’s constitution and asking the court to rule that Abure alone has the power to dissolve the state executive.

Pepple briefed journalists in Port Harcourt on the court’s ruling, which he said was presided over by Justice C Adangor, that the court lacked jurisdiction to resolve problems of internal party dispute. He also noted that the case was academic, since various developments had already overtaken the petitions of the defendant.

We’ve seen several articles misrepresenting a recent court ruling, and we’ve heard other rumours as well.

When former Labour Party national leader Julius Abure disbanded the Rivers State chapter of the party’s executive committee in April, we took the matter to court.

And we went to court with two main requests: 1) to determine whether Abure has the only power to dissolve a state executive council, and 2) to determine whether the Labour Party constitution contains anything resembling a Steering Committee, since Abure appointed one for a month.

Other circumstances, however, have already superseded our requests, as Abure was removed and detained by a Federal High Court in Abuja on April 5, and one of the Deputy National Chairmen was subsequently selected by the NWC to serve as acting chairman.

Now the new acting chairman has given me a letter and my executive committee responsibilities for another three months as caretaker chairman.

And these distractions supplanted our supplications. The judge said that it didn’t matter anyway because our wish had long since been granted.

The court ruled that it lacked authority to consider the case because it was brought before the highest court in a different state. That wasn’t why we went to court, so I’m curious as to where they plan to bring the argument that the judge ruled they should stay.

We took this matter to court since there is no provision for a Steering Committee in our constitution and Abure does not have the sole power to disband a state executive council.

As previously mentioned by Pepple, on July 21 Factional National Acting Chairman of Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa handed Pepple a letter authorising him to continue leading the party’s activities for another three months.

A month has passed since Hilda Dokubo’s appointment to the Steering Committee.

Since he was detained on April 5th, Abure shrewdly presented a group of persons a letter from the caretaker committee dated April 3rd.

The restraining order prevents him from signing any documents. The Labour Party cannot accept a letter signed by Abure. Since the letter’s expiration date was June 3, he hastily backdated it to April 3.

The current acting National Chairman of the party, Lamidi Apapa, gave me a letter on July 21 stating, “As I speak to you today, I was given another letter by Lamidi Apapa, to continue for another three months before our convention.”

Dokubo’s Labour Party’s lawyer, Chris Okparaolu, said that the court had dismissed Pepple’s initial summons.

Since Abure had already disbanded the state executive led by Pepple, Okparaolu contended that the interpretation of the court’s verdict is that the Steering Committee led by Dokubo, remained the real Steering Committee of Labour Party in Rivers State.

We sought the court to dismiss their plea on the grounds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over matters arising within a political party.

In this regard, the court sided with the respondents.

That ruling means that Hilda Dokubo, as chair of the Steering Committee chosen by the Labour Party’s national secretary, is the legitimate leader of the party in Rivers State.

“And that, that of Dienye Pepple has been validly dissolved and is no longer in existence,” he continued.