The Labour Party has suspended its national deputy chairman (South), Lamidi Apapa, and some other officials, as the leadership crisis within the party deepens.
Apapa was suspended on Tuesday at a meeting of party officials in Asaba, Delta state, the News Agency of Nigeria reported.
The decision was communicated through a statement by Ladi Iliya, national deputy chairperson, and Kenedy Ahanotu, deputy national secretary, NAN reported.
The party’s National Executive Council meeting was attended by senior party leaders, state chairpersons and secretaries, its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, and officials of the electoral commission, Inec.
– Why this matters
The party emerged a third force in the just concluded general elections in Nigeria, winning 12 states in the presidential elections on Feb. 25, according to official results. It won a governorship seat and dozens of seats in the National Assembly.
The party rejected the outcome of the presidential election and has asked the appeals court to cancel that declare it winner instead of the ruling APC.
Last month, it faced a budding internal crisis after a court said Apapa was the national chairman, and not Julius Abure.
– Learn more
In its statement, the party said it had confidence in the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee.
The statement said that the NEC meeting reaffirmed and upheld the decision of its Akure convention which expelled its former publicity secretary, Arabambi Abayomi, and suspended the following National Working Committee (NWC) members: Lamidi Apapa, Salem Lawal, Favour Reuben, Gbenga Daramola, Samuel Akingbade, and Mohammed Akali.
The party also considered its disciplinary committee’s report, which recommended the suspension of the former youth leader, Anslem Eragbe, and recommended him for expulsion at the next national convention. Pending the next convention, the NEC suspended Eragbe indefinitely.
It set up a disciplinary committee comprising the national youth leader, Kennedy Ahanotu, acting national publicity secretary, Obiora Ifoh, and acting national legal adviser, Edun Kehinde, as members. It listed other members as the acting deputy national secretary, Rotimi Kehinde and the national vice chairman South-South, Anthony Ezeagwu.
The Labour Party also evaluated the 2023 general elections and criticized Inec’s failure to transmit election results real-time from polling units, which it said gave room for massive manipulation of results.
The statement condemned electoral violence and the use of security agencies to intimidate voters and perpetuate other crimes in parts of the country.
“NEC noted the resilience and doggedness of our presidential candidate and its resolve to legitimately reclaim its mandate in court. NEC accordingly calls on the judiciary to do the right thing irrespective of whose ox is gored,’’ it said.
– Apapa responds
A statement reported by Tribune quotes the Apapa faction of the party as saying the suspension was of no effect as it was against a court declaration.
The statement also tackled Obi as an “ethnic bigot” not qualified to lead the country.
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