Labour Party: I Must Endorse All Candidates For Elections – Apapa

Factional National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Lamidi Apapa, says only candidates endorsed by him can fly the party’s flag in the three off-cycle Governorship elections slated to hold in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States on Saturday, 11th November 2023.

Apapa, who spoke at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja, said the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Owerri has affirmed him as the authentic National Chairman of the party.

In continuation of the legal confusion rocking the Labour Party, the Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Thursday ruled that Julius Abure should stop parading himself as the Party’s substantial National Chairman and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise governorship candidates produced by Apapa’s faction for the election.

According to Alapa; “You will recall that on April 5, the FCT High Court restrained Abure and others from parading themselves as national officers of the party. As a result, the party appointed the Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Lamidi Apapa, as the acting national chairman of the party pursuant to its constitution.

“Sequel to that, the party under my leadership wrote to INEC changing its date of primary election earlier scheduled by Abure from April 15 to April 16. Notwithstanding the fact that he was under a restraining order, Abure still went ahead to conduct his primaries for Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa on those dates.”

On the strength of existing Court orders, Apapa said his faction conducted primaries on April 16, 2023, making it two primaries conducted by the LP in the states.

“Peeved by the primary conducted by me, a candidate who participated in the Abure primary took my candidate to court whilst maintaining that Abure’s candidates were the authentic ones. The case was frantically defended, and the Federal High court, Owerri Division, declared the primaries conducted by me as the authentic candidate as Abure was under a restraining order as at the time he screened candidates and conducted his primaries,” he said.

Apapa said the court recognised him as the authentic Chairman of the party and dissatisfied with the FHC judgment, Abure’s candidates, including the winner of his primaries, appealed against the judgment to the court of Appeal.

He said the Court of Appeal had also affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court that Abure’s conduct was contemptuous as he was under a restraining order when he conducted the said primaries.

“That restraining order is still in force even at the time this judgment was delivered,’’ he said – With additional NAN reports