The crisis in the Labour Party appears to have further deepened as the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Labour Party on Tuesday suspended the Acting National Chairman, Lamidi Apapa and five others.
Apapa and the other affected members were suspended over alleged anti-party activities which were not specified.
Apart from Apapa, the other affected members are Alhaji Saleh Lawal, Deputy National Secretary; Rawland Daramola, National Financial Secretary; Prince Reuben Favour, National Vice-Chairman, South-South; Samuel Akingbade, National Legal Adviser and Mohammed Akali, National Vice-Chairman, North-East, The Nation reports.
The party’s NEC also upheld the decision of the Akure convention which expelled the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Arabambi Abayomi.
Apapa and five others, on April 6, 2023, took over the affairs of the party following the ruling of a Federal High Court which restrained Julius Abure from parading himself as the chairman of the party.
On April 6, SaharaReporters reported that seven members of the party’s NEC announced the National Vice-Chairman (South), Apapa, as the acting chairman of the party, replacing the suspended chairman, Abure.
Following criticism against him and allegations that he was planted in the party by the ruling All Progressives Congress as a mole, Apapa recently said if the party's supporters, known as 'Obidients,' understand what was going on in the party, they would realise how ignorant they had been.
Apapa said this when he appeared on Channels Televisions Sunday Politics, where he refuted the accusation that opponents sponsored him to destroy the party.
Apapa who described himself as a founding member of the LP claimed he enjoyed the support of the party’s supporters as the new leader.
“That is not true. Nobody is sponsoring me,” Apapa maintained.
“For anybody to now say I want to run down the party, that is a lie,” the LP chieftain added.
Regarding allegations that he was being sponsored by opponents to destroy the party, the LP chieftain refuted the claims. He said as a foundational member of the LP, he would not do such.
According to him, since a court has ordered four national officers of the party including Abure to stop parading themselves as such, his move is in the right direction.