Apapa said his rejection by officials of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) was due to the lack of knowledge of the party’s history and the roles he played

The statement condemned electoral violence and the use of security agencies to intimidate voters and perpetrate other crimes in parts of the country.

“NEC noted the resilience, and doggedness of our presidential candidate and its resolve to legitimately reclaim its mandate in court.

“NEC accordingly calls on the judiciary to do the right thing irrespective of whose ox is gored,’’ the statement also read. It stressed its implicit confidence in Mr. Julius Abureled National Working Committee.

The National Working Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party last Tuesday suspended Apapa for “anti-party activities, contravening the constitution of the party and running of parallel leadership and putting the party in total disrepute,” following an order by an Abuja High Court restraining Julius Abure from parading himself as the LP’s national chairman.

Following the order, Apapa, who was the party’s deputy national chairman (South), declared himself national chairman.

But, speaking on the outcome of the NEC meeting which suspended him, Apapa said his suspension was invalid, saying that Abure did not have the legal backing to convey the NEC meeting of the party.

Apapa said his rejection by officials of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) was due to the lack of knowledge of the party’s history and the roles he played.

He said, “I was not suspended. I was not invited to the NEC meeting. They think that I was not supposed to be there. As of today, I’m the only legitimate acting national chairman of the party.

“I’m not struggling with Abure. I’m there in an acting capacity. The constitution of the party is so clear on this, that for whatever reason if the national chairman is unable to perform his role, the deputy takes over. That is exactly what has happened.

“Nobody is sponsoring me. Nobody has suspended me. I remain the acting national chairman of the party. I maintain that.”

Speaking on the crisis, the Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Akin Osuntokun, blamed the judiciary for the crisis rocking the party after the 2023 general elections.

Osuntokun said that the judgment by Justice Muazu ordering the party’s chairman, Julius Abure and other national executives of the party to stop parading themselves as national officers of the party created the crisis currently engulfing the party.

He said: “There is nothing going on (in the Labour Party) other than the crisis of the judiciary. It is a judge, the judiciary that made a judgement that is now responsible for creating a crisis in the Labour Party.

“It was a judge here, who in his discretion, said that Abure, who has been chairman for the primaries of the presidential, for the governorship, for the state Houses of Assembly should stop parading himself as chairman of the party.

“A judge, thereafter, gave a judgment that the chairman should no longer parade himself as a chairman. What do you make of that? And look at who and who brought the case before him.

“The judge is a Nigerian, he reads newspapers like the rest of us and he could have taken a more logical position on what was brought before him. Does it mean that if a clerk in the Labour Party brings a complaint before you, you can give a judgment on the basis of that?”

Osuntokun maintained that the judge had the option of allowing the chairman of the party to remain in his position and go on with the case, but he chose an option that shows he was “setting the party up for crisis.”