Chief Lamidi Apapa, the Deputy National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), has called on the electorates in the off-season Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi governorship polls to vote for candidates presented by his faction of the party.
Lamidi said that any candidate presented by or “document signed by Abure now that he is restrained by a court of competent jurisdiction is null and void”….Continue Reading>>>
Apapa, who spoke to Sunday Independent at the weekend, in Abuja, said: “I am the legitimate leader of the party by all ramifications. The law and everything is on our side.”
On the faction controlling state chapters, the Deputy National Chairman said: “By the time Abure was calling people for meetings, he was in charge of the party’s money. But, as of today, majority of them now understands the truth; that actually, Abure committed fraud.
“And if by tomorrow another meeting is called, they know where to go because they know that if they go to another place, they’re on their own. They are doing that at their own peril.”
He also explained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would recognise its candidates in the upcoming governorship elections.
He added: “They must because the law is on our side. But, where they fail to, we know what to do.
“I don’t want to pre-empt it. But, since INEC is a creation of the law, they must respect the law.
“Nobody is after Abure. But, we must protect the party. We have candidates that are contesting the elections. Any document that is signed by Abure during this period of restraining order is null and void.
“The other opposition parties will just stay and watch. As soon as any of them emerges governor, just in one or two sentences, that the primary that brought him as a candidate was illegal. And anything you do at that level is null and void.
“We don’t want to allow that to occur. We’re protecting the party, and those that are contesting under the party.”
Apapa stressed that the outcome of the ongoing court case against the embattled National Chairman would “tell the whole world who is a liar between Abure and me,” even as he insisted that he was formally asked to deputise for Abure by the National Working Committee (NWC) of LP.
He further dismissed claims of rejecting an offer for truce by the other faction, as he frowned at the refusal of the presidential candidate to apologise for the ill treatment meted to him.
“Those who came, I told them that once we’re called to a meeting, I’m prepared to attend. But, he has not done that.
“He has never called me for one day. Instead, he went on air and told the whole world that he has never seen me.
“Then, I told the whole world that if he says that he has never seen me, then he must be a liar.
“Because the sitting arrangement at our National Working Committee meetings has the Chairman, himself and myself. How will that person say that he has never seen me in life?”
When contacted, Obiora Ifoh, Acting National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, said: “We are no longer engaging the Apapa group on any matter….Continue Reading>>>
“They are feeding on our feedback to get cheap popularity. So, write your story on the strength of what they said. We’re done with them.”