Apapa-led LP Faction Denies Withdrawing Obi’s Petition At Election Tribunal

The factional chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, has denied allegations that it approached the presidential elections tribunal to withdraw the party’s petition challenging the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the February 25 presidential elections.

THE WHISTLER had reported how the Julius Abure-led faction of the party raised an alarm over alleged plans by the Apapa faction to jeopardize the party’s case at the tribunal by outrightly withdrawing the petition.

However, the Apapa faction said the statement was laced with deliberate falsehood, describing it as an “epistle of personal bitterness, ignorance and complete unintelligent outburst.”

A statement issued on Wednesday by the Apapa faction’s Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, said Abure had been restrained by the Abuja high court “over confirmed allegations of forgery of court seal” and others.

It said it is not new that he could engage in “cheap blackmail to gain public sympathy in order to cover up his criminal tracks.”

The statement challenged Abure to produce a copy of the letter which he (Apapa) or the Secretary signed to seek the withdrawal of the petition at the tribunal.

Apapa said the publication was “a well orchestrated plan by Abure to incite violence and chaos in order to make Nigeria ungovernable.”

He asserted that he (Apapa) and his team would not engage in any verbal war with those he called “pedestrian political misfits and despots”, saying it was obvious that “Abure is trying to whip up sentiment on his travails.”

He maintained that the Labour Party under his leadership stands with Obi on the “mission to reclaim the mandate freely given to him and our party during the February 25th 2023 Presidential and National Assembly election.”