The external induced crisis bedeviling the Labour Party, LP is seen in some political quarters as travails of the party while keen political watchers have finger the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC as the sponsor of the dissidents in the party who are being used to taint the fine petition filed by the party at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal
By Miracle Egbo
Lamidi Apapa, the self-styled “National chairman” of the Labour Party, LP is a study. Apapa imposed himself on the party as National Chairman without a National Convention of the party declaring him so. In imposing himself as the National Chairman of the party he has observed all the laws of the party that qualifies someone to become the National boss of the party in the breach. Apapa was not a member of the executive of the party but wriggled his way to the position of the National Chairman of the party without following due process as required by the constitution guiding the party.
It was gathered that Apapa before coming to upstage the legally backed National Chairman of the Party, Barrister Abure, he had been spotted allegedly having nocturnal meetings with some of the notable stalwarts of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. He has been fingered to be behind writing letters to the Tribunal claiming that the party has decided to withdraw the Petitions in the various Election Tribunals especially the Presidential Election Tribunal, an action the authentic leaders of the party have countered by reminding the tribunals to disregard such purported letter authored by Apapa because he does not have the authority of the party to do so. Abure has through the acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh dismissed the purported letter authored by Apapa, adding that the Tribunal should disregard the letter as the ranting of a frustrated party member who is bent in making sure that he taint the credibility of the party believed to have won the just concluded presidential election in the country.
Information at the disposal of this medium revealed that Apapa’s plot to throw spanner in the wheel of progress of the LP to recover the presidential mandate allegedly stolen by the candidate of APC meta brickwall immediately it was discovered by his sponsors that the party had a water-tight case in the Presidential Election Tribunal. Investigation orchestrated by this medium revealed that Apapa was unleashed on LP by the ruling APC, by using the judiciary to destabilize the party so that it would lose focus on its pursuits of the recovery of its stolen presidential mandate at the tribunal. According to source, Apapa has been acting the script handed over to him by the ruling party. Apapa is nudged by his sponsors to escalate the imagined crisis wrought in the party by him and his cohorts by using the instrument of the court. Buoyed by the alleged financial gratification extended to him by the ruling APC, Apapa and his cohorts having got the court injunction restraining Abure from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party, he started behaving like a bull in the shopping mall.
Akin Osuntokun, the Director General of the LP Presidential Campaign Council in an interview with Arise Television said that the judiciary is culpable in the crisis raging in the party. He wondered how a character like Apapa would want to foist himself in the party. He argued that even if the purported suspension of Abure is true, the constitution of the party empowers its National Deputy Chairman to takeover, and Apapa is not anywhere near that position. He assured the populace who are sympathetic to the party that the leaders of the party would reign in their powers to chase away the usurper in the name of Apapa, adding that Abure is still the authentic National Chairman of the party until the National Executive Council, NEC of the party says otherwise. He revealed that the constitution of the party allows only NEC of the party to suspend the National Chairman.
In the same vein, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC led by Joseph Ajaero has vowed to make sure that Apapa is not used to disorganize the party. Ajaero said that Labour Party is the property of NLC, and the body would not allow characters like Apapa to ruin the reputation of the party that is poised to reclaim its presidential mandate stolen by APC in collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. NLC made good its promise of flushing out Apapa from the National Headquarters of the party in Abuja when it invaded the secretariat and took over, and averred that Abure is still the recognized National Chairman of the party until NEC of the party says otherwise.
Apapa in what appeared to be his defense said that Abure has been suspended by his ward in Edo State coupled with the fact that there is a subsisting court order restraining him (Abure) from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party. He said that he has not violated any constitution of the party, and is only fighting the alleged criminality, forgery and fraud leveled at Abure and his executives.
Investigation revealed that some members of the LP allegedly recruited to throw spanner in the works of the party by suspending Abure through his ward were hasty to approach the court to make sure that he is restrained from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party. The agenda of the dissident group in the party was to make sure that the party does not know peace to distract it from pursuing the petition it has filed at the tribunal.
Whatever is the case, the agenda of the group led by Apapa has been unveiled, and every efforts politically possible is being employed by the leaders of the party to make sure that the evil plots does not see the light of the day. As at the time of filing this report, there are two subsisting court injunctions, one restraining Abure and the other saying that he is still the substantive National Chairman of the party because the earlier injunction lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter.
