The factional national chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, has said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will recognize candidates nominated by his faction in the off-season elections across Nigeria.
There are off-season governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states which the Labour Party led by Julius Abure has nominated candidates.
However, Apapa has urged the electorates in the aforementioned states to vote for the candidates from his faction, insisting that he is the leader of the party.
Apapa, during an interview with the Sunday Independent, stated that INEC would recognize candidates from his faction in the off-season governorship elections because the elector body knows his faction is backed by law.
He said: “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 as governor, just in one or two sentences, 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 argues that the “document signed by Abure now that he is restrained by a court of competent jurisdiction is null and void”, stressing that “I am the legitimate leader of the party by all ramifications. The law and everything is on our side.”
The factional national chairman noted that when the ongoing legal battle between the two factions ends, the world would know “who is a liar between Abure and me”.
Apapa claimed that the state chapters of the party know that the Abure’s faction is no longer recognized by law.
He said: “By the time Abure was calling people for meetings, he was in charge of the party’s money. But, as of today, the majority of them now understand 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 peril.”
According to Apapa, he has not rejected calls to meet with the other faction for peace talks, adding that the faction had not even called him to a meeting.
He also claimed that the party’s presidential candidate disrespected him for saying on national television that he doesn’t recognize the factional national chairman.
Apapa said: “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?”
