The acting Chairman of the Labour Party in Anambra State, Mr Peter Okoye, has insisted that it is not true that the factional national chairman of the party, Lamidi Apapa, is being sponsored by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to disrupt the party activities.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the Labour Party’s executive meeting in Awka, Anambra State capital, on Saturday, Okoye explained that the allegations against Lamidi are untrue, baseless and should be disregarded.
He also insisted that the National Chairman of the party, Mr Julius Abure, remains suspended until he accounts for the sum of N400 million belonging to the party and clears himself of an alleged forgery and perjury that led to his suspension.
He said, “People have been going about insulting our acting National Chairman, Alhaji Lamidi Apapa, but I want to make it clear that all the stories against Apapa are all false and that Tinubu is not sponsoring him.
“Those allegations are untrue and baseless. He has been a member of the Labour Party for 21 years and N400 million is at stake and nobody is talking about it.
“Our former National Chairman, Julius Abure was suspended for perjury and forgery and other criminal activities in our party.
“How can Julius Abure forge somebody’s signature and substitute somebody illegally?
“The missing N400 million in question belongs to the party and at the appropriate time, everything would be exposed.
“The truth is that the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory suspended him(Abure) and he went to the Court of Appeal in respect of the ruling of the application filed.
*They filed preliminary objections because of jurisdiction and the Court ruled that it has jurisdiction and he went on appeal and so we are waiting for the outcome of the appeal.”
Okoye, however, pointed out that they are not against the aspirations of its Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, and Yusuf Datti Ahmed but they are only against the anti-party activities of Abure.
He insisted that no validly conducted congress produced any state executive members of the Labour Party across the country, adding that Abure organised a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the party in Asaba despite his suspension.
“We are not against the candidacy of Mr Peter Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti-Ahmed. We are solidly behind them, but we are against the bad management by our former National Chairman, Julius Abure and we are saying no! and nobody is above the law.
“And because of that at the meeting we held in Bauchi, all the members of the state executives across the country were suspended with the exception of our Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Ahmed and all the elected state, National Assembly and governorship candidates,” he added.
