BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The crisis in the Labour Party took a dramatic twist on Wednesday when some state chairmen of the party refused to allow the Lamidi Apapa-led national working committee from gaining access into the headquarters in Abuja.
Last week, a faction accompanied by men of the Nigeria Police barricaded the party’s national secretariat located in Utako.
The group, made up of seven members of the National Working Committee of the party, installed the National Vice-Chairman (South), Lamidi Bashir Apapa, as the acting chairman of the party, replacing Julius Abure.
They claimed to be acting on a judgment of the Federal Capital Territory High Court which restrained Abure, and three other party executives from parading themselves as such.
However, the 36 state chairmen of the party forced their way into the party’s headquarters, chanting “Abure remained the party’s leader.”
Addressing journalists in front of the Secretariat gate on Wednesday, Kehinde Rotimi, LP, Kwara State Chairman and the leader of the chairmen forum of LP in Nigeria, said that they arrived for a meeting but were locked out of the party’s secretariat and that when the Apapa-led faction arrived, (the state chairmen) also refused to let them in, forcing everyone to remain outside.
“We have been here for quite some days now, for screening of some of our gubernatorial candidates for the forthcoming election in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States. We were at the screening yesterday when we learnt that some people brought themselves to this office to do screening for candidates.
“When we heard that, we said that that is an aberration because they do not have the locus standi to do that. And I am a member of a screening committee where we screened so many candidates yesterday.
“So, I do not know how they manipulated one or two candidates to come here yesterday and impersonated some of the candidates so that’s why we came here yesterday, on getting to our secretariat, we wanted to hold a meeting and we discovered it was under lock and key. So we met some DSS men and some vigilante groups, some thugs and miscreants and they said they asked them to lock the secretariat.
“So in the course of discussing that, the legal committee led by Apapa came around and was trying engage us, and their thugs were almost attacking us and we resisted every temptation to cause commotion and crisis because we know the case is in court, any thing in court you don’t discuss it and we don’t want to commit contempt of court and that’s why we now said okay, what do we do, let’s stay here. So they could not enter, we too, could not enter.
“But we know by tomorrow, every legal process will be completed and I know that by the time the court gives the normal ruling, because when you accuse someone of an offense, especially criminal offense, the person must be heard according to section 36 of the Nigerian constitution.
“In this case, you accuse four principal officers of the party of a very serious offense but they have not been heard by the court. The next thing we are hearing is that they should stop parading themselves as officers of LP.
“And we are part of the chairmen council, which is a very integral part of NEC who have the final authority to rectify any decision taken by the party. We have not met and we told them, go and wait for the court to decide they don’t want to do that. They are taking laws into their own hands.
“Everyday they keep coming here when they discover we were tracked for an assignment. They came here quickly to come and cause trouble,” he stated.
Speaking further, Rotimi said, “Okay let even say the truth, if you are barring the chairmen and maybe two or three others from entering the secretariat, the chairmen were not barred. They are not covered by that order. So, we have a right to enter our secretariat. So that means these people have some other ulterior motives. They have been calling our chairmen to come and support them but we refused, we say this is not right”
On his part, LP National Youth leader, Anslem Eragbe who was suspended by the NWC but now reinstated by the Apapa-led NWC, said that they were merely acting in accordance with the party’s constitution.
According to him, “The Nigeria Police Force, under the Inspector General of Police, Force CID, Investigation Department, did their investigations and came out with a forensic audit, that indicted Barr. Julius Abure, the national Secretary, the national treasurer and the national organising secretary, and the FCT high court, issued a restraining order on the 5 of April barring Abure and the three others of parading themselves as the national officers of LP. This is the position of law and it has nothing to do with the party.
“And the natural course of the constitution is that the most senior person who is the deputy national chairman South of the party assumes that office and that has been done. Some of us who were illegally suspended, myself and the publicity secretary, Arabambi were subsequently restated some day. So right now, we are not here because of the noise.
“We have a national task, we have a national assignment. We have the national leader of the party here, Alhaji Lamidi Apapa. You saw when we came in, I stretched my hand to all my juniors in the party.
“I am a national officer, these are state chairmen. Notwithstanding, I stretched my hand to them, you saw the level of disrespect. I didn’t take it against them, until they had the effrontery to embarrass the national chairman. I can’t stand here and watch while junior officers of the party embarrass the national chairman.”
