The Labour Party (LP) factional leader, Lamidi Apapa has declared that only candidates endorsed by him are authentic and can feature in the November 11 Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo governorship elections.
Apapa made the declaration when he spoke at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.
He stated that the judgment of the Imo Division of the Appeal Court affirmed him as the authentic national chairman of LP.
According to him, the court sacked the Julius Abure-led faction and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize governorship candidates produced by his faction for the election.
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Apapa recalled that the FCT High Court had, on April 5, restrained Abure and other party members from parading themselves as the LP’s executives and appointed him the acting national chairman.
He said:
“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.”
His faction, he disclosed, conducted primaries on April 16, making it two primaries conducted by the party in the states.
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He said:
“Peeved by the primary conducted by me, a candidate who participated in the Abure primary took my candidate to court while 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 at the time he screened candidates and conducted his primaries.”
Apapa maintained that after the FHC court recognized him as the authentic chairman of the party, Abure’s candidates, including the winner of his primaries, appealed against the ruling at the Court of Appeal.
The Factional Leader confirmed that the Court of Appeal also affirmed the judgment of the FHC that Abure’s conduct was contemptuous since he was under a restraining order when he conducted the said primaries.
He said:
“That restraining order is still in force even at the time this judgment was delivered.”
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