Lagos State Chapter Of Labour Party Disowns Embattled National Publicity Secretary

The executive members, candidates and stakeholders of the Labour Party in Lagos State have disowned the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi.

A statement by the secretary of the state chapter, Sam Okpala, on Wednesday accused Arabambi of lies and misrepresentation of facts during his appearance on a national television morning show.

The National Working Committee of the party had on Saturday sacked Arabambi, over his alleged role in the expulsion of the Director-General of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe.

According to the statement, the former national publicity secretary was initially given responsibility by the party to ensure that all its candidates for Senate and house of representatives positions from Lagos State are listed in Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal for the 2023 general elections.

To carry out this responsibility, the statement informed that despite given Arabambi all the necessary support and assistance, both financially and materially, by the national leadership as well as the state chapter of the party, he managed the process poorly, which resulted in legal disputes.

The state chapter also criticised Arabambi for casting aspersions on the National Chairman, Julius Abure, and reaffirmed its confidence in the national leadership of the party.

“The former national publicity secretary, Arabambi Abayomi, being from the Southwest, was initially charged by the party’s national secretariat of Labour Party led by the national chairman Dr. (Barr) Julius Abure to ensure that the party’s candidates for Senate and house of representatives positions are listed in INEC portal for the forthcoming general elections in 2023. The party did this to allow Arabambi prove his critics wrong that he was/is an agent of the ruling APC to sabotage the labour party in the southwest zone in general and Lagos State in particular as was being suspected at the time,” the party said in a statement.

“Dr Arabambi in the course of this task was given all the necessary support and assistance both financially and materially the national leadership as well as the Lagos State chapter of the party.

“The Matter in the high Court was so poorly managed and handled by Arabambi and his compromised team, which resulted in the matter being dismissed by the Federal High Court an this development was willfully hidden from the party leadership by Arabambi and his team for reasons only known by them.This poor performance was after Arabambi has collected millions of naira from the party in Lagos State into his personal bank accounts purportedly for legal” fees”and other ancillary expenses in respect of the matter.

“To add salt to injury, Arabambi refused to hand over the matter and the case file to the party’s trusted legal team when the demand was made of him by the national leadership of the party since Arabambi and this team did not make any effort to file an appeal against the judgement of the lower court in any appeal court of the land even as he was aware that the window for doing same was elapsing with obvious implications for the party and her candidates. Anybody could hazard a guess here as to why a self acclaimed”committed” labour party man will exhibit such behavior if not only to satisfy his paymasters at the detriment of the party.

“At this juncture, it became too obvious that Dr Arabambi and his cohorts were leading the party and her candidates to the point where the party will not be able to file,” the statement added.