The two factions contesting the control of the national secretariat of the Labour Party, on Wednesday, engaged each other in a war of words as they tried to gain access to the secretariat....CONTINUE READING
It however, took the intervention of private security guards with personnel of the Department of State Service (DSS), to prevent fisticuffs between the two factions…..CONTINUE READING
New Telegraph reporter who witnessed the event said the faction loyal to the suspended National Chairman Julius Abure, was the first to arrive at the secretariat but was denied access.
They were however to confront the acting National Chairman Lamidi Apapa who arrived with his faction at about 2 PM. Apapa and his group were later to beat a retreat after the squabble.
Spokesperson of Forum of LP state chairmen High Chief Rotimi Kehinde, who spoke to journalists after the encounter, said they came to conduct screening of governorship aspirants for Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo States but were denied entry into the secretariat.
Rotimi who is Chairman of the Kwara State chapter of the party stated that the Apapa faction that screened some aspirants on Tuesday, lacks the locus standi to do so, adding “I do not know how they manipulated one or two aspirants to come here yesterday (Tuesday).
“We wanted to hold a meeting and we discovered it was under lock and key. We met some DSS men and some vigilante groups…and they said they were told to lock the secretariat.
“In the course of discussing that, the illegal committee led by Apapa came around and were trying to engage us, and their thugs were almost attacking us.
“We resisted every temptation to cause commotion and crisis because we know the case is in court; anything in court you don’t discuss it and we don’t want to commit contempt of court.”
The spokesperson who noted that the matter is already in court expressed the belief that the court order would soon be vacated.
According to him, “When you accuse someone of an offense, especially criminal offense, the person must be heard according to section 36 of the Nigerian constitution.
“In this case, you accuse four principal officers of the party of a very serious offense but they have not been heard by the court. The next thing we are hearing is they should stop parading themselves as officers of LP.
“We are party chairmen, a very integral part of NEC who have the final authority to rectify any decision taken by the party.
“We have not met and we told them, ‘Go and wait for the court to decide,’ they don’t want to do that, they are taking laws into their hands.”
Chairman of Abia State chapter Keecee Igara, accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of stoking a crisis in LP.
Igara stated that alleged that the two parties are using “suspended members of the party to come and destabilize the party.
“We are talking about taking back Nigeria, if we must take back Nigeria, we must stand on the truth. We must stand on equity and justice…..CONTINUE READING
