Lamidi Apapa, a factional chairman of the Labour Party, has petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to dismiss all cases brought by Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, against the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 25, 2023.
Obiora Ifoh, acting Labour Party National Publicity Secretary, issued a statement on Tuesday urging the Abuja Tribunal to disregard Apapa’s “antics” as a suspended Labour Party Deputy National Chairman.
“By means of this proclamation, we are informing all branches of the judicial system, including tribunals and courts, to disregard the ignoble antics of these compromised suspended party members. We also request that the police, DSS, and EFCC apprehend these enemies of democracy,” he said in a statement posted on the party’s website.
Ifoh stated that Apapa and his co-travelers are frantic to please their paymasters, who are intent on threatening the democracy of Nigeria.
“Appealing to the tribunals to withdraw all cases filed by Labour Party candidates across the board is the height of subterfuge and duplicity, and Nigerians will resist this scheme to plunge the nation into needless chaos.
“Their actions demonstrate that they are working against the party and to bring about its demise. If they claim to have issues with the national leadership of the party, will they also claim to have issues with the party’s candidates? What offence have the party’s candidates committed that has prompted them to withdraw their cases from the tribunal?
“Therefore, the leadership of the Labour Party requests that all tribunals disregard any correspondence from our suspended National Legal Adviser, Samuel Akingbade, stating that all of our cases are to be withdrawn.
“We are also requesting that the presidential election tribunal disregard letters from these former party officials requesting that HE Peter Obi’s petition be withdrawn,” the statement noted.
Following a new legal dispute within the party, Apapa declared himself the national chairman of the LP earlier in April. In response to the development, Labour Party state chairmen in the 36 federated states disowned the factional leadership and threw their support behind Julius Abure as party leader.
Apapa insisted, however, that he is the national leader of the party, as the court had suspended Abure and other national officers.
