Arrest Peter Obi, Members Calling for Interim Government – LP Faction

The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party has called on the security agencies to arrest any of its members including its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, calling for an interim government. This development depicts the deepened leadership crisis amidst the party.

Abayomi Arabambi, the National Publicity Secretary of the Lamidi Apapa-led faction of LP, made the call while speaking to journalists in Abuja after the Federal High Court judgment affirmed the suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure, and re-affirmed Apapa as the Acting National Chairman of the party.

The LP faction has said that nothing can stop the inauguration of the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, as the next president.

The LP faction said that the call for an interim government was an attempt to throw the country into jeopardy. Also, a call was made on the Nigerian Military, the Inspector-General of Police and the DSS to immediately arrest anyone moving and clamouring to stop the transition process and May 29 inauguration.

Arabambi said, “Anyone calling for an interim government including Peter Obi should be arrested. We are calling on the Inspector General of Police to arrest them because nobody is above the law.

He added that everyone in the Labour Party does not understand Peter Obi’s call that the president-elect, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu should not be sworn in on May 29th being that the LP came third in that election behind the PDP.”

Labour Party not challenging PDP

The Apapa-led faction insisted that they were not interested in withdrawing the suit filed by the party at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. Arambambi, however, said a case filed by the Obi and Abure faction challenging the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) wasn’t done in good faith.

“We came third in that election behind the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and we are not even challenging PDP in the tribunal, that means we are saying the vote allocated to the PDP is correct in the eyes of the law”, he said.

Arambabi also said that both Obi and Abure deliberately excluded PDP in the suit but are focused on challenging APC. He added that  is only trying to play on people’s intelligence and not having any impact in the election petition.

LP faction gives lawyers 48 hours for briefing

Apapa told the party lawyers handling the election to brief him on the ongoing election with warning that failure to do so would lead to a change of lawyers who would take over LP matters and we will now be doing it side by side with Obi.

He said, “I want to assure Nigerians that the Apapa-led executive is not interested in withdrawing any matter, but as the chairman confirmed on Friday, he has the right to know what is going on. This is because the number one claimant is Obi and the second claimant is the LP. So, Obi is not an LP and cannot manage the affairs of our party.