The Labour Party’s Lamidi Apapa faction has recommended the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to seek another political platform to pursue its presidential dream ahead of the 2027 polls.
The Apapa group, whose legitimacy was just confirmed by the Edo Division of the Court of Appeal, said that it had begun looking for a new presidential candidate ahead of the 2027 election.
Abayomi Arabambi, the faction’s spokesman, confirmed this in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
Arambambi spoke against the backdrop of Obi’s appeal filed at the Supreme Court on Tuesday to dispute the ruling of the Presidential Election Petitions Court, which recognised President Bola Tinubu as the victor of the 2023 presidential election.
The Apapa-led LP had distanced itself from Obi and the Julius Abure faction’s determination to contest Tinubu’s victory in court.
On August 14, the Edo division of the Court of Appeal pronounced Apapa to be the genuine National Chairman of the Labour Party.
Arabambi told our correspondent on Wednesday that Obi should not waste his time appealing Tinubu’s Supreme Court victory.
Obi definitely lost the election, he claims, because to his alleged misuse of human resources.
“My advice is for him (Obi) to go and start planning for 2027,” Arabambi added. But it must be in another party, not the LP. We will not tolerate such scum in 2027. As far as we are concerned, we will hunt for a new candidate.
“Obi is free to run for APGA again, not Labour Party.” We don’t want to keep appeasing a character who believes no one, other than himself, has anything upstairs. He is not an effective human resource manager. That was why he lost so badly.
“Let me ask Obi who is accusing President Bola Tinubu of certificate fraud this question.” Obi claimed to have a B.Sc. Did he include the B.Sc in his application? Wasn’t that the school diploma he scribbled there? Why is he concealing his B.Sc? That’s because he knew they might summon the vice chancellor or the registrar to establish its validity.”
Yunusa Tanko, spokeswoman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, downplayed Arabambi’s warning, saying, “They (the Apapa faction) do not own Labour Party.” That’s why I don’t want to argue with them. There’s no need to pay attention to these people.”
Kehinde Edun, the LP’s National Legal Adviser, also chastised the Apapa faction, claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission recognised the Abure faction.
“Do they have authority over the party?” he asked. They are party members who have been suspended. So, how do they decide who will be the flag bearer? These people have resorted to comedy.
“INEC has the statutory authority to monitor and keep records of political party activities.” So, who are they going to propose the candidate to? It is the same INEC, and the election umpire can only accept nominations from the party’s recognised National Executive Committee. The national chairman must also nominate any candidate.
“As of today, the recognised leadership of the party is the one led by Abure, not Apapa or whatever they call themselves.” Nothing they say moves us. They’re just impersonators and comedians pretending to be something they’re not. We know they’ll soon run out of steam. Nigerians no longer take them seriously because they can see through their games.”
