- Lamidi Apapa
//ONYEKA-AJUMOBI ONOCHIE//SHARE THIS
Against public expectation, the new acting National Chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, has boasted of enjoying full support of the party’s political mass movement, popularly known as Obidients. Even though the Obidients were known to be specifically followers of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, Apapa said they respect him as the party’s new acting chairman.
Apapa who stated this while fielding questions on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics said, “as of today, I am the acting national chairman of the party, and it follows that he who wields the palm frond is naturally who the goat follows. That’s an adage, anyway.”
Recall that, Apapa, LP’s Deputy National Chairman (South) had last week declared himself as the party’s acting national chairman following a fresh legal tussle in the party, even though the incumbent chairman, Bar Julius Abure, had repeatedly said he remains the authentic chairman of the party as “a court of competent jurisdiction has ordered so.”
After Apapa’s declaration as acting chairman, Labour Party state chairmen in the 36 states of the federation disowned his factional leadership, insisting on Julius Abure as the party’s leader.
Giving a hint last Thursday, on Apapa’s claim on acting chairmanship, when the party’s national secretariat came under heavy attack, Bar Abure said: “the national headquarters of the Labour Party in Abuja on Thursday, witnessed a massive attack leading to it being broken into by a detachment of the Nigerian Police and thugs believed to be working for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
–Julius Abure
“The invaders who were armed to the teeth, pulled down the fences, burglaries, doors and windows to have access to our Secretariat and in the process sacked workers and party members who were at the Secretariat.
“Though, I was out of town, but information has it that the agenda of the invaders was to inaugurate an illegitimate executive which has been chosen for them by their sponsors.
“This incident is coming days after a similar invasion in our Imo state Secretariat which up till now is still being occupied by the agents of the Imo state government.
“Only yesterday, our Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, through the Presidential Campaign Council, alerted Nigerians of plot to hound him out of the country over APC’s covert plot in collaboration with some security agents to frame him up allegedly on matters bordering on treason.”
The LP chairman noted that Labour Party is only a political party which is contesting for power, noting that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, having conducted an election, ranked it third, a position it has rejected and has approached the Tribunal to contest, lamenting that was its only known offence.
“We, therefore, call on President Muhammadu Buhari to call his party, the APC, to order and also rein them in from using unorthodox means to suffocate political structures in Nigeria.
“A court of competent jurisdiction only yesterday ordered that I, Julius Abure, remain the National Chairman, and should not be restrained from performing my duties. It, therefore, baffles me why the Nigerian Police should allow itself to be used to perpetrate illegalities.
“We advise the Police, APC and their sponsors to play by the rules. We will no longer tolerate the often intimidation and deployment of brute forces against the party and their personnel. We demand they put a stop to abuse of power and respect the rights and privileges of other political parties, particularly, the Labour Party to contest for power,” Abure stessed.
But even in all of this, Lamidi Apapa claims he enjoys Obidients’ support to the fullest. /SHARE THIS
Tags: Lamidi Apapa, Julius Abure, LP
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