The Ogun State chapter of Labour Party, LP, has restated its support, loyalty and recognition of Barrister Julius Abure as the authentic national chairman of the party.
This, according to the Publicity Secretary of the LP in Ogun State, Mr. Tokunbo Peters, followed the unsuccessful attempt by some suspended and expelled members of the party to remove Abure from office.
In a statement made available in Abeokuta, the publicity secretary described the “purported National Executive Council meeting held in Bauchi by Lamidi Apapa and his cohorts as a charade and a gathering of renegades being sponsored by the ruling APC to destabilise Labour Party and to frustrate the case of the Party at the Presidential Election Tribunal.”
He added that the Ogun State leadership of Labour Party under the chairmanship of Engr. Lookman Abiodun Jagun was fully represented at the legitimate NEC meeting of Labour Party held on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 in Abuja, where 33 state chairmen and their secretaries from all over the federation were present.
The party’s spokesman described as a huge joke the purported suspension of Kehinde Sogunle and some members of the Ogun State executives of the party as contained in a “laughable” communique issued by Lamidi Apapa and his “band of usurpers” at their Bauchi charade.
He said Kehinde Sogunle remained the Labour Party governorship candidate in Ogun State and a respected chieftain of Labour Party, while Engr. Lookman Abiodun Jagun remained the Ogun State chairman of the party.
Peters reiterated that Mr Lamidi Apapa and his cohorts had since been suspended from the party by the legitimate NEC of the party, while Mr Abayomi Arabambi, the former acting publicity secretary, had long been banished from the Labour Party following his expulsion. He said, hence, he was no longer in a position to speak for the party under any guise.
The spokesman of the party restated that Lamidi Apapa and his cohorts had no legitimacy and recognition by any state chapter of the Labour Party, not even by the Oyo state chapter where Apapa hailed from.
He said the NLC, TUC and INEC also did not recognise them.
“The only people who reckon with them are their paymasters in APC, who are using them to create confusion and destabilisation in the party, with a view to scuttling Peter Obi’s case at the Presidential Election Tribunal,” he asserted.
He said the party urged “Obidient” movement and the teeming supporters of the Labour Party in the 3rd Force Movement to remain steadfast as there were no divisions within the party.
He stressed that the party under the able leadership of Barrister Julius Abure was focused on recovering the mandate freely given to Mr Peter Obi in court.
