Labour Party Chairman Apapa Denies Receiving N500m Bribe From APC, Says Attack On Him Disrespectful

Labour Party Chairman Apapa Denies Receiving N500m Bribe From APC, Says Attack On Him Disrespectful

Save Our Nation SON

May 17, 2023

The embattled factional National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Basiru Lamidi Apapa, has described his attack at the presidential election tribunal by angry youths as disrespectful.

The party leader called on the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi to objectively wade into the crisis rocking the party.

Meanwhile, Apapa had denied allegations that he has collected the sum of N500 million from the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC), to destabilize the party and frustrate its petition at the tribunal.

Apapa spoke at a media briefing after his attack at the Presidential Election Petition Court on Wednesday.

He demanded that Obi must be unbiased in order to get the disputed chairmanship Tussle resolved.

The media briefing was attended by the deputy National Chairman of the party in the north Mike Ayuba Auta, National Publicity Secretary Olufemi Abayomi Arabambi and one of the women leaders Rukayat Salihu Umar,

He said that what happened at the Presidential court in which fracas broke out in the presence of Peter Obi, was disgraceful and a test of Obi’s leadership.

Apapa said that the leadership crisis would have been put behind them if the presidential candidate had respected the order of the Federal Capital Territory High Court which ordered Julius Abure and three others from parading themselves as National Officers of the party over their indictment for forgery and perjury.

Tracing the genesis of the leadership crisis, Apapa said that immediately after the order of the court was served on the party, he was unanimously selected in an acting capacity as the National Chairman of the party.

He said that it was wrong of Obi to accord respect to Abure in spite of the order of the court and as a presidential candidate seeking Justice from the same court of law.

On the alleged receipt of 500 million Naira from external forces to destabilize the party, Apapa vehemently denied receiving any money or being influenced by anybody or any group to work against the party.

He also said that it was wrong of Peter Obi to have claimed not to know him adding that he worked closely with and even travelled on the same flight with Peter Obi throughout his presidential campaign.

He appealed to Obi to be open-minded, neutral, and objective so as to be able to stop the crisis.

Also speaking at the briefing the Deputy National Chairman of the Party in the North Mike Ayuba Auta denied that the All Progressive Congress was behind the crisis adding that the allegation was baseless and unfounded.

Auta apologized to Nigerians who he said gave Labour Party over 6 million votes during the last presidential election, adding that that should not be discouraged by the current leadership crisis and assured that the dispute will soon be resolved.