Faction Of Labour Party Backs Tinubu; Denys Obi

A Labour Party faction, led by Lamidi Apapa, has distanced itself from the demand that President-elect Bola Tinubu not be sworn in until the cases before the presidential election tribunal are resolved.

There was controversy when Archbishop John Onaiyekan, an elder statesman, stated the judiciary should have rendered its decision on the electoral issue before the next president is inaugurated.

However, Abayomi Arabambi, spokesman for the Lamidi faction, stated in a statement that the Electoral Act and the Constitution do not allow for a vacuum.

“Swearing in Tinubu on May 29, may not have any impact on the ongoing legal tussle on the presidential election involving our party, APC and INEC. So, whether the President-elect is sworn in or not, there is right to remove him legally if it is found out that he was not duly elected,” Arabambi said.

Citing sections 136 and 146 of the constitution, he said, “What Peter Obi is crying for is not supported by the law. A refusal to swear in Tinubu as President will create a vacuum in the system, the law abhors this.

“Even Peter Obi once benefitted from the system of being sworn into office despite pending petitions filed against him before the tribunal by Andy Uba. The Law has to be complied with, which is to swear in Tinubu as president, and if anybody wants to change the narrative, they will have to change the law.”

Responding in a statement, Labour Party acting National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh stated Arabambi and Apapa’s words indicated that they are moles plotting to undermine the party for monetary gain.

“The text of the statement which was read as a commercial in about three television stations in prime time hours suggests that the real sponsors of the crisis in the LP would stop at nothing in ensuring that they sustain the imbroglio.

“The huge financial war chest being deployed to achieve this inglorious plot to halt a popular aspiration of millions of Nigerians for a new and prosperous nation leaves a huge gap in the dexterity and desperation of these evil plotters.

“In all Peter Obi’s public and private statements, he has never said or by implication, insinuate that May 29 should be shifted. He is a democrat and he is one person that believes so much in the judiciary as the last arbiter, and that is why he has resorted to the court to seek justice,” Ifoh said.

He stated that the LP is concerned by the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s use of the faction as a mouthpiece to express their fears, particularly the possibility of not making it to Eagle Square on May 29th, which has continued to give them both sleepless nights and has pushed them into deploying an already compromised and fallen member of the LP, led by Apapa and Arabambi, as their mouthpiece.