In this interview with MAYOWA SAMUEL, factional National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, who is loyal to the factional chairman, Lamidi Apapa, asks Obi to accept defeat at the polls and withdraw his petition against President Bola Tinubu. He also accused the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, of trying to blackmail the Federal Government using a nationwide strike threat, after his proposed labour union was rejected by the Buhari administration. Excerpts:
What’s your submission regarding the process that heralded the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as winner of the presidential election?
Our electioneering system is getting better every day, month and year. So, we give it to the Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC because we’re aware in Nigeria that losers are not always magnanimous in defeat, they’ll look for one excuse or the other, running from one court to the other. But we must learn how to accept defeat, and even if you’re not going to accept defeat, you must do it within the confines of law and order. So, for me, the winner has extended a hand of fellowship to every other person. Those who don’t want to be part of the administration and those who want to be, they’re at liberty, they have their rights to make their decisions.
It’s not for anybody to think his name is Nigeria, or his surname is Abuja. We’re all Nigerians, nobody should think he’s above the law in this country.
The Julius Abure faction of the Labour Party is challenging the election outcome. However, the Lamidi Apapa faction, which you’re a part of, is against Peter Obi’s petition. Are you one of those who also believe that the election was rigged? You’re also demanding that Peter Obi withdraw his petition against Tinubu’s victory. Is it that you don’t believe Obi has any reason to institute the suit?
Obi is not serious about the election. He met us in that party, he has no political credibility to come and tell us this is how a political party should be run. He was in APGA, but he was sent packing after eight years.
He was in the PDP, he ran as vice president, what did he come out with? He came to Labour, thinking he’s one local champion that everybody in the party can be trampled upon. In our election, before, during and after, Obi didn’t struggle to acquire one ward secretariat for the party all over Nigeria. Obi didn’t struggle to acquire a local government secretariat for the party. No single secretariat was paid for by this man. During the election, no agent was paid by Peter Obi and the Labour Party.
No candidate was supported with N1. He came, did a meeting, and he said it is each for each, good for us all, that’s all about his election.
During the campaign, he was saying, vote for me, vote for me. There was never any forum where Obi said vote for the LP candidates at all levels. INEC asked us to submit the list of our agents for the 198,000 polling units we have.
The Labour Party submitted only 30 percent, and we said we’re looking for one stolen mandate.
It’s a law that we all know that only results signed by polling agents are what you can tender as exhibits, that’s Form EC08. Where you lack over 70 percent of the presence of agents in an election, is that the kind of election that you’re shouting all around that they stole your mandate? Who are the people that defended that mandate at the polling unit? This was the reason why he went to court unprepared, and I’m going to cite instances.
I wasn’t the one that told him to write directly to INEC, knowing fully well that you’ll need the certified true copy of the documents you need. And your lawyer wrote to INEC that you cannot afford N1.5million.
Prof. Mahmood, the counsel to INEC read that letter on the floor of the court that Obi wrote a letter that he couldn’t afford N1.5 million to process certified true copies. He had over 21 days to achieve that for his pre-hearing session.
Do you know that he didn’t pay that money simply because he was only playing games? How can Obi claim he doesn’t have N1.5 million to pay INEC to obtain certified true copies? And you know election petitions are time bound.
When they ask you to pick something, you need to go ahead and pick it. But he deliberately forgoes those things because he had a hidden agenda. Let me tell you the hidden agenda. Before the election, we did a meeting at NEC level, which is the state chairmen, secretaries and the NWC, the NWC level and national officers did a video of that meeting where he promised to get one secretariat for the party across Nigeria, secretariat for the local governments across Nigeria, state and national.
It was this NEC resolution they took home and abroad, people now donated money. When this money came, himself and Abure opened an account and kept the money there. That’s the attitude of a business person, that’s why they called him a trader.
I never knew Obi is that kind of a person that will now look at us at the Labour Party as an avenue to revive his business. His mall got burnt, but after the election, he had money to be renovating it. Why didn’t he renovate it before now? As I speak now, they’re in possession of $15million and N12 billion.
I can’t just imagine Obi now coming out to tell us that he hired seven SANs, and he’s giving them N500 million. Whose money? The Labour Party’s money is what you’re giving out. Why do you prepare to fail? It’s just an avenue for him to siphon that money, and he’ll go to the EFCC. He can’t escape it because we’re not idiots. You don’t just come with a mischievous plan to use the Labour Party to deceive and to obtain money from Nigeria via pretense.
In the course of that matter at the Court of Appeal, there was a time two of their counsel were sick. They told the court that they couldn’t move on. That’s actually what propelled my comment. The following day, they were unable to file a simple process, one small process. The court now told them that they were going to give them a stand down of two hours, that they should regularise things. After they came back, the court said they didn’t file this thing properly.
The court now said, Obi you’re wasting our time, it shows you’re not prepared for this case. I’m not the one that said it, the five court justices at the Court of Appeal are the ones that said that. He should withdraw that bloody petition, because it’s an avenue for him to be siphoning money illegally from unsuspecting members of the public who are donating money to the Labour Party.
That’s our position, and I’m still standing on that.
“Obi didn’t struggle to acquire a local government secretariat for the party. No single secretariat was paid for by this man. During the election, no agent was paid by Peter Obi and the Labour Party. No candidate was supported with N1”
On the N1.5 million that INEC asked Obi to pay, Obi’s lawyers said that they have the money but INEC brought only 36 percent out of 100 percent of the results they were supposed to bring. What’s your version of this?
Don’t mind them. That was the day we had fracas with them in the court. They wrote that letter 21 days before that time that they should come and obtain it.
They were shocked, they never knew Prof Mahmood would read that letter to the open court when they were challenging them they didn’t give them documents. When that man read it, they were shocked. They then said they wanted to pay that money. But what about the time they’ve wasted? You see why we’re having issues with them? It’s only at that time that INEC said that they invited them, but they refused to honour it.
That’s why they went to the tribunal with only 30 percent of the Form EC08. You’re already aware that he said he’ll need seven weeks for 50 witnesses. PDP said they needed five days.
In an election petition, a witness will come and testify per polling unit. But he went to line up witnesses that will be talking for states, local governments. Local governments that have over 100 polling units, some have over 200 polling units, you’re bringing one man who is not an eyewitness, to come and stand before the court.
The election petition will last for six months, all the time, he was to come and obtain the CTC, Obi is not working for the Labour Party, he’s working for PDP. You came third, how can you catapult yourself to number one? Did you know that in Imo, Anambra, witnesses were put in the witness box on Thursday, and they accused the Labour Party of rigging for Peter Obi? They’re contesting the result that Obi is not challenging where he had 99 percent.
You said you had 99 percent in a presidential election but you have only one senate. PDP is saying they won Anambra because Soludo worked against him, Soludo had said he’s not the kind of man that they should have any form of trust in.
Obi is a trader in the Labour Party. He came to use us to trade. All that money, we will take from him. Rather than being a chronic, ethnic irresponsible irredeemable irredentist, that guy is an ethnic bigot because he’s waging war against the North and the South West in our party. He’s waging war against the Yoruba, Hausa’s and the South South.
Why are both factions not….
There’s no faction in the Labour Party. When an order has been given by the court, you’re bound to obey it. Due to forgery, perjury, criminal conspiracy leveled against Abure by the police, and the court that confirmed that he actually forged their documents, the court restrained him, pending when that matter will be disposed of.
He filed a preliminary objection that was also dismissed by the court. The next thing then is either to abate or to kill your opponent’s case. Once it’s been dismissed, that means your opponent’s case still stands, by law. But Abure, because of his penchant for disrespect for rule of law, said he’s not going to obey the order.
He has forgotten he’s with Peter Obi who said he’ll not obey that law. He has forgotten that he’s in the presidential election petition tribunal. So, any other person that they give judgement against at that tribunal is also liable not to obey the law.
What about the latest judgement that reinstated Abure as chairman? What’s your interpretation of that?
No, there’s no judgement like that. He went to Edo State High Court where he prayed the court not to be suspended. Meanwhile, he had been suspended before then but was later declared null and void. Don’t forget that he was restrained by a court in Abuja.
An Edo State High Court cannot set aside a judgement of the FCT High Court. As soon as he got restrained, he needed to set aside that order. Don’t forget that they were four that were restrained by the court.
Only he went to Edo. He wasn’t suspended as national chairman, he was suspended as a member. Because of the restraining order, he went to Asaba to go and concoct illegal NEC.
Upon that, the NEC then suspended him in Bauchi. We weren’t a party to that suit, so we were not binded. It was between him and his ward executives, so it’s none of our business.
He’s also been restrained by a judgement of the court, until that judgement has been set aside, you remain restrained. The danger is this, everything Abure is doing with Peter Obi, whether it’s the primary election, They will be declared null and void, Abure is only playing to the gallery.
As far as I’m concerned, all those names they are publishing in INEC are null and void because they were done in flagrant disobedience to court order. So, we’re only waiting for INEC, but INEC should know that their candidates will not fly in any election, because you don’t disrespect our laws. How can you be a presidential candidate and you can’t obey a simple order, but you now said people stole your mandate, you’re now approaching the court that they should help you out.
The one they granted against you, you said no.
You’re now choosing which law to obey and which law to disobey, what nonsense.
At the initial stage, your faction still backed Obi’s petition at the tribunal. Why the change now?
We’ll not support illegality. A man who, in his own understanding, said Yoruba people shouldn’t be holding positions in the Labour Party, the northerners should not hold positions in the Labour Party.
I hope you’re aware that before the election, we lost most of our gubernatorial candidates, mostly in the North West and North East, also our senatorial candidates, the reason is because of Obi’s executive impunity, rascality, he appointed a northerner as deputy coordinator and put southern citizen as state presidential campaign coordinator in North East and north western states.
That’s criminal, something against federal character. Who are you to go and put Igbo as coordinator in Sokoto, Zamfara, Gombe, Yobe? You now ask the Hausas, the northerners to be their junior, to be subservient, their subordinates. Is that the kind of rubbish he wants to do? That’s why we lost our governorship candidate in Kano first, then Sokoto followed, they took all our Reps and Senate. That’s when they said our candidate is an ethnic irredentist.
A man who is only promoting ethnic bigotry and religious coloration, that’s what he’s proposing. That’s why we lost in the entire north. So why are we going to support him? Where is the mandate? A mandate that the indigenes of Kano accuse you that you’re an ethnic bigot, Sokoto, Gombe, Zamfara, all of them accused him of acting like a god. You know, it’s an insult upon injury for you to put Igbo man in Zamfara as coordinator.
When I challenged him, he said what do they know, that I should not bother myself about it.
That was the beginning of our matter. With that, we now withdrew because the man is anti-unity. That’s why NLC is supporting them. NLC failed to go on strike during ASUU’s eight months strike. We had a naira redesign issue where people were dying in the hospital. The only answer we had was to give N3, 000, N5, 000, N20, 000, no matter how rich you are, NLC did not deem it fit to fight for Nigerians. But today, the subsidy was not removed by Tinubu, whom they fought against, because they were with us.
NLC are members of the Labour Party. They were already an interested party in the election, therefore they cannot be leading a party, and at the same time, leading a pressure group.
The NLC president came to our secretariat and said he was a member of our board of trustees. When you’re also a member of the board of trustees of the Labour Party, how can you be fair to Nigerians? You’ll always be seen to be supporting your political party against all odds.
Supporting Obi is not a crime, but you cannot now be deceiving Nigerians and saying that I’m for you. They are trying to say they’re part of them because a Yoruba man won against an Igbo president, because he too is from Imo State.
Let me tell you a brief history about the NLC president. When Ayuba Waba won his second term, Joe Ajaero formed United Labour Congress, where he was coming to Labour Party Secretariat that we should give him support, he went to meet former Anambra State governor who was minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, that they should register him against NLC, they refused, that was why there’s hostility against them now, from him.
He’s a bad loser. He rose to the hoard of NLC after he made lots of appeals and begged here and there, they brought him back, only for him to say let me punish this APC.
They refused to engage me, they refused to run my union that I formed. He came to the Labour Party Secretariat to fumigate all the rodents there, we’re going to their houses, occupy their houses, and we’ll send their children out. Is he a guerrilla fighter? That has caught up with him now. You’re now with NLC, I told Nigerians not to believe in him, he’s a politician. He’s not fighting for the interest of Nigerians. He’s only doing witch hunting and fighting only for his own just cause.
What do you say to people who think that the Apapa-led Labour Party is working for Tinubu?
In Nigeria, people love false news over the truth. As long as you’re fighting, they don’t care who wins.
Their own is that at least, let someone carry the day. Whether it’s the lie that triumphs over the truth or it’s the truth that triumphs over lies, they don’t care. That’s the problem we have in Nigeria. Because we opposed illegalities, they’re looking for a way to say we’re working for Tinubu, that’s his problem.
What they asked us to do was to help them organise a protest against the Tinubu presidency. We now told him no, let your wife and children go and start the protest first.
They want that government destabilized. There are some people, very few people in Yoruba land that follow their thought, but they are inconsequential. For the majority, we say no, let the court decide. We can’t put Nigeria into a war situation.
Former president Jonathan congratulated Buhari for winning the election in 2015. This is the kind of thing we should be doing. You must not put your personal interest ahead of Nigeria’s interest, and her citizens.
What if at the end of day, the judgement of the tribunal goes in favour of Peter Obi?
I will advise the incumbent president not to accept that ruling. So that Obi will see how it feels like to disobey. Let him come and say the court has given me judgement, it must be respected. Let’s see if it will be justified.
But your advice to the incumbent could be a recipe for anarchy. Don’t you think?
He said he doesn’t want to respect any judgement of the court, and he’s in court, let’s see how it goes. For me, I know Tinubu will respect the order but my advice will be that he should not respect the order. Let’s see what Obi will do. He’s a law breaker, he’s a man that has no respect for our constitution and even the people.
“They are trying to say they’re part of them because a Yoruba man won against an Igbo president, because he too is from Imo State”
The fuel subsidy removal declaration made by Tinubu on inauguration day has put the country in a tense mood. What do you say about this?
That’s the intention, and that is the reason why we need to give the president a pat on the back. It’s going to affect Cotonou, because these are the people that have been enjoying the subsidy the Federal Government says it’s been paying, Now that fuel is N500 in Nigeria, let’s see who will now be taking it there. The business has ended, everything has ended.
Government is not importing fuel for anybody now. You want to buy, you’ll buy in Naira, you take it abroad, you bring the refined product back, not when the government will be doing a subsidy that has come to an end. So, I give it to Tinubu. These are the kinds of things Nigerians should be talking about. The suffering will subside.
Many are of the view that Tinubu should have provided palliatives, get the refineries working, and address all the other related issues before removing subsidy. What do you say about this?
No, he can’t. A lot of our people don’t understand how governance works. The former president had signed that budget into law before he left. You had an Assembly that was dissolved last week.
When something has been signed into law, and a new president comes on board, he’s not the one that did that budget. That budget, they’ve already removed the subsidy for July. It’s not his fault. So, when he now said gentlemen, there’s no provision for subsidy in the budget, unscrupulous Nigerians pounced on that by selling the product they bought at subsidized rate of N165 at the depot at a high rate. So, you don’t blame it on the man who read what he saw on the ground.
He’s now the one that will send his own bill to the National Assembly. You don’t expect a president who’s just coming to be writing to the National Assembly to please give me $800 million, for palliative purposes. Nigerians will say, see this man, he’s a thief. He’s looking for money to recoup, that’s Nigerians for you. But now that they’ll inaugurate a new National Assembly on Tuesday, he will need to seek permission to do the palliatives.
What will you say to the LP governorship candidates for Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo that emerged from the faction of Abure which INEC has already recognised?
They were picked through illegal means. I will advise them not to waste their funds, because they will not run under that party. INEC releasing their names doesn’t matter. The governor of Bayelsa was not the one that won that election. It was on May 28, 2019, that the Supreme Court asked the initial person to step aside. So, we’re not bothered. Let them continue, but I’ll advise them not to waste their funds.
