In a statement released on Monday, the Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party stated that the purpose of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting scheduled for May 3 in Bauchi State is “to right the wrongs and illegality of the contempt of court orders perpetrated by Julius Abure, whom the FCT High Court restrained from parading himself as National Officers of the Labour Party.”
On Sunday, the party’s struggling Julius Abure faction referred to Apapa’s planned NEC as “illegal, fake, and unauthourized.”
In a statement, a factional spokesman named Obiorah Ifoh urged party members to disregard any invitations that Apapa had sent them, claiming that as the suspended Deputy National Chairman, Apapa lacked the authority to call a meeting of the NEC.
The party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, as well as the newly elected governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, were both invited to the NEC meeting, according to Apapa, who quickly responded.
According to Apapa, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), elected state and national assembly members from the party, NWC & NEC members, and others have also been invited.
In a statement signed by the faction’s spokesman and provided to DAILY POST, Apapa recalled that the “NWC had given the Inspector-General of Police and Director General, Department of State Security Service, a leave to arrest and prosecute one Obiora Ifoh an impostor impersonating as the Acting National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party, LP.”
Apapa emphasized that the court had ordered Abure and three other people to stop posing as Labour Party LP national officers.
According to him, their detention came about as a result of a police investigation and forensic audit report “that indicted Abure and others for forgery, perjury, and criminal conspiracy with financial malfeasance to the sum of over four hundred million naira (N400,000,000.00).”
He claimed that Abure had willfully violated the FCT High Court’s restraining orders by “illegally holding a Labour Party NEC meeting in Asaba, Delta State on April 18, 2023 and issuing illegal appointment letters to states executives, among other things,” according to the reports from April 5, 17, and 20, 2023.
The Asaba NEC meeting was declared illegal by Apapa, who also revealed that “warrants of arrest have been procured for the arrest of Julius Abure and others” due to their claimed “forgery, perjury, and criminal conspiracy.”
The NWC has declared the charade carried out by Julius Abure and his criminal gang on April 15, 2023 during the gubernatorial primaries held in the states of Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo in the 2023 off-season elections for November, 2023, he continued.
“Abure wittingly and covertly misled Mr. Peter Obi, Governor-elect Alex Otti of Abia State, Senators, House of Representatives members, and state Assembly members elected on the Labour Party 2023 platform to violate the FCT High Court Restraining Order against them.
“The National Working Committee, led by Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa, has scheduled the real National Executive Council, NEC meeting of the Labour Party for May 3, 2023 in Bauchi, Bauchi State, and there is no turning back.”
“Obiora Ifoh’s press release is pointless and of no consequence, resembling the antics of a buffone, and should be ignored.
“Under the leadership of Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa, the Labour Party shall continue to function within the confines of Federal Republic of Nigerian law, including the FCT High Court’s restraining order prohibiting Julius Abure and others from posing as national officers of the Labour Party, and in accordance with the Labour Party constitution of 2019 as amended.
“The Labour Party NWC led by Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa has committed itself to reclaiming the stolen mandate of Labour Party, using the Election Manager Situation Room Mobile Application to gather all the missing Forms EC8A scattered throughout the voting locations in Nigeria for which Julius Abure was unable to provide over 42,000 polling unit agents for the 2023 presidential and general elections.
“While the case in the Benin High Court concerns Abure’s suspension from the ward, the matter in the FCT High Court centers on the criminality of forgery, perjury, and criminal conspiracy against Abure.
“The resolution from the illegal NEC meeting conducted by Julius Abure on April 18, 2023 in Asaba Delta State is null and void, and all those purportedly suspended and expelled are voided,” the resolution from the illegal NEC meeting said.
