- Apapa: I remain LP bona-fide Chairman
- Abure: Apapa and His group Are Imposters.
By Charles Adingupu
Despite the endorsement of Julius Abure as the national Chairman by 36 state Chairmen of the Labour Party, a factional Chairman, Lamidi Apapa has declared that he remains the bonafide party’s national Chairman.
Apapa who made this assertion on Sunday at a Channel’s TV programme, Politics Today, said the Court Order which sacked Abure and his lieutenants still subsists.
He described the process that led to his emergence as the purported LP national Chairman as credible, adding that six-member national working committee (NWC) who voted for him was constitutional.
He maintained that the allegedly sacked national Chairman, Abure is currently engaging in acts tantamount to illegality on account of a subsisting court order which reportedly axed him from office.
According to him, Abure only invited 36 state Chairmen of the party to Benin city, Edo State Capital for a chat, and thereafter, transported them to Abuja where they were compelled to enforce what he claimed was a “fake endorsement”.
The factional Chairman, Apapa, also dismissed insinuations in certain quarters that he was paid by the opposition party to destabilise the LP in order to further frustrate ongoing legal efforts by the party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi to seek redress in court.
Mr Apapa who also claimed to have cordial relationship with the party’s presidential candidate, assured that the internal bickering in the party would not joepardize its Court cases.
Apapa who claimed to have served the party in different capacities, said he cannot be cowed by any group or persons to perpetrate illegality as Abure must relinquish his post as the party’s national Chairman for peace to reign.
He, however, called on Abure and his EXCO members to as a matter of expediency, obey a purported “court injunction for peace to continue to reign.”
It would be recalled that prior to an announcement that threw up Apapa Lamidi as a factional Chairman of the LP, some group of persons had reportedly assembled in Edo State, claiming to be from the same ward with Mr Abure. At the gathering, it was alleged that the LP national chairman, Mr Abure was removed following an announcement, purportedly sacking as the party’s national Chairman.
Less than twenty four hours after the purported sack of Abure and his officers from the party, the embattled LP national Chairman at a press conference in Benin city, Edo State, surrounded by party members, responded to his alleged suspension. While describibg his reported sack as null and void, he added that the perpetrators were not even from Esan much less claiming to be members of his ward.
However, political pundits are of the opinion that the drama currently playing out in the Labour Party may be akin to the biblical annotations “the hand Esau but the voice of Jacob.”
According to political analysts the unfolding political drama and intrigues in the LP are products of the jostle for the soul of the party.
