Lamidi Apapa, the Labour Party’s factional national leader, has stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will recognize candidates nominated by his group in off-season polls across Nigeria.
The Labour Party, led by Julius Abure, has nominated candidates for governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states.
Apapa, on the other hand, has urged voters in the aforementioned states to choose candidates from his faction, claiming that he is the party’s head.
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Apapa told the Sunday Independent that INEC would recognize candidates from his faction in the off-season governorship elections since the electorate understands his faction is legal.
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.”
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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.”
When the ongoing legal war between the two factions concludes, the world will know “who is a liar between Abure and me,” according to the factional national chairman.
Apapa asserted that the state chapters of the party are aware that the Abure faction is no longer legally recognized.
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.”
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According to Apapa, he has not declined invitations to meet with the other faction for peace negotiations, and the faction has not even invited him to a meeting.
He further stated that the party’s presidential candidate treated him with contempt for announcing on national television that he does not 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.
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“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?”
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