– Says President-elect Tinubu must be sworn in on May 29th
By Yemi Monday
Labour Party (LP) factional leader, Bashiru Lamidi Apapa, on Saturday called on the Nigerian Military, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Alkali Baba and the DSS to immediately arrest the party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and any Nigerian agitating for an Interim Government ahead of the May 29 exit of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Lamidi Apapa faction, which is loyal to the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the All Progressive Congress (APC), further said that “any other person moving and clamouring to stop the transition process and the inauguration of President Elect, Bola Tinubu on May 29 2023 should be arrested and prosecuted no matter his or her status in the society.”
National Publicity Secretary of the Apapa led LP faction, Abayomi Arabambi, told Journalists in Abuja in Abuja on Friday that if the Party’s legal team at the election petition Tribunal in Abuja failed to meet Lamidi Apapa in his capacity as the National Chairman and brief him on the legal proceedings within 48 hours, the faction would appoint new Lawyers to take over Labour Party’s case at the tribunal.
The factional Spokesperson said: “If anyone calls for interim administration, including Peter Obi, they should be arrested. For him or any other person calling for such, we are calling on the IGP to immediately arrest them because nobody is above the law of the land.
“You cannot plunge Nigeria into war and say that you want to rule the country. We in the Labour Party are saying capital ‘no’ to that. We don’t understand the call by Peter Obi that the President-elect, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu should not be sworn in on May 29th. As far as we are concerned, the LP came third in that elections behind the PDP.
“The irony is that today, the LP is not challenging the PDP that came second, that means that we are saying that the votes allocated to PDP is correct in the eyes of the law, but, the PDP that Peter Obi is defending is challenging the validity of the election that brought Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President-elect.”
Arabambi stressed that PDP is claiming that it scored the highest lawful majority votes in the election while the LP is saying “no, the votes you have, we are not challenging it because it is in accordance with what we believe in, that was why Peter Obi with Julius Abure deliberately excluded the PDP after the shenanigans with them and now challenging the results of the APC.
“So, how on earth will he not cover his face in shame for excluding the PDP, why must he not challenge the second person but challenging the first person.”
The factional National Publicity Secretary stressed that no matter the status of any individual, he or she is not above the laws of the country and must be treated as such saying that the security agencies in the country must act in order to curb all such moves in the bud.
He opined that those who are calling for interim administration where there is a President-elect is “not a true ‘Obedient’ but ‘Obidiots’ because nobody who is a genuine politician will want to see the country plunged into crisis.”
He further said that every Nigerian must be subjected to the rule of law and must be made to understand that in whatever he or she does, peace of Nigeria must come first.