The Lamidi Apapa group and Nkiruka Onyejeocha, the state minister of labour and employment, are allegedly plotting to cause division within the Labour Party (LP), according to the party’s leadership.
The Labour Party levelled this charge following the appearance of two INEC-represented solicitors in the Lagos appeal court last week, each carrying a letter of authority to argue on the commission’s behalf in the legal dispute between Nkiruka Onyejeocha of the APC and Amobi Ogah of the LP.
Remember that earlier this year, Ogah and Onyejeocha ran in the Isiukwuato Umunneochi Federal Constituency election? Oga received 11,769 votes, while Umunneochi received 8,752 votes. Ogah was declared the winner by INEC.
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But the LP candidate’s election was declared void by a National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Abia State’s capital, Umuahia.
Three-member tribunal panel judgement on the Umuahia petition (file number EPT/AB/HR/8/2023) concluded that Ogah had violated the Election Act.
Ogah insisted that Onyejeocha’s nomination as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was proof that her petition had been abandoned.
The tribunal, however, disregarded the legislator’s justification in its decision.
The hearing was forced to be postponed due to the appearance of two distinct solicitors claiming to be authorised to represent INEC at the Lagos appeal hearing.
The LP’s National Youth Leader, Kennedy Ahanotu, responded to the event by telling reporters on Wednesday at the party office in Abuja that they had information suggesting the drama was being prepared by the minister and a faction of the LP.
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Alongside Ahanotu at the conference were National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh and National Legal Advisor Kehinde Edun, who both expressed their certainty that Ahanotu was collaborating with some of the party’s expelled members.
“The leadership of the Labour Party wishes to inform Nigerians on yet an unholy alliance between the Minister of State for Labour, Nkiruka Onyejeocha, and some expelled members of our party led by Chief Lamidi Apapa, whose purpose is to ensure that crisis is sustained perpetually in our party”, he said.
“One may begin to wonder what connects the minister and the Labour Party that she will go to the length of instigating and funding crisis within the party. We are, however, aware that the former lawmaker is fighting a personal and proxy war against the party.
“Onyejeocha has been in the national assembly since 2007 until the February 25 general election when she was defeated by Amobi Ogah by a very wide margin. Her loss to Amobi Ogah was a pill too hard to swallow; hence, she has vowed to use all her connections to ensure that the election declared by INEC is upturned in her favour.”
Ahanotu also clarified the misunderstanding that resulted in the two solicitors showing up in the appellate court last week, claiming that they thought there was foul play.
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The LP National Working Committee member further mentioned that, despite the fact that J. O. Asoluka’s legal practise was set to officially take over, the letter was purportedly purposefully delayed in order to impede Ogar’s appeals procedure.
“The desperation by lawyers from the firm of Yunus Ustaz Usman to insist on representing INEC, even when the firm had already written to INEC withdrawing its services, stoked our curiosity. But the embarrassed Usman has completely distanced himself from the action”, Ahanotu said.
“On further investigation, we realized that INEC failed to release this letter written on the 17th by the firm of Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN) withdrawing from the case. The letter only surfaced after the unfortunate incident at the Appeal Court. So we are wondering if there was any threat from high places against officials of the INEC preventing them from making the letter public.
“We also took special note of the presence of the Apapa-led splinter group, which attempted to hijack the representation of the party at the court. How did this splinter group come into the scenario and who got them involved? It is a known fact that this group has evolved as meddlesome interlopers and has severally worked against the larger interest of the Labour Party, even when the Supreme Court has refused them recognition”.
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The minister reacts:
In response to the accusation, Gabriel Emameh, the minister’s special media adviser, advised the Labour Party to concentrate on its internal problems.
The Labour Party made an accusation, which Emameh refuted, saying that a well-known former federal member with 16 years of national service would never engage with the opposition party.
“Ahanotu has forgotten so soon that the crisis in the Labour Party started even before the inauguration of the party’s Presidential Campaign Council in 2022. Why Ahanotu and his gang believe that Honourable Onyejeocha is the source of the army of problems that have ripped LP inside out is not just arrantly illogical but obsessive and demonic”, he said.
“Despite all the pre-election posturing, it was all too clear to every discerning mind that the Labour Party was a fantasy house built on sand, of which its loss at the Presidential poll has continued to expose its rotten underbelly.
“Robbed of her victory to return to the 10th Assembly, by LP’s Amaobi Ogah, the learned judges of the Abia State National and State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal saw through the heist and returned her as duly elected. As a strong believer in the rule of law and the sanctity of the courtroom as well as the judiciary as the citadel of justice, she is optimistic that Daniel will also come to judgment at the Appeal Tribunal.
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“My honest and sincere counsel is that the LP should face up to the pervasive leadership crises in the party, look inwards and reinvent itself and allow the honourable minister to focus as she is too busy to be distracted.”
Apapa faction Reacts
In a statement, the Apapa faction’s spokesman, Abayomi Arabambi, refuted Ahanotu’s assertion and stated that they had no communication with the minister.
Arabambi stressed that the minister is free to bring legal action if she believes that her authority has been infringed.
“The LP dispels the allegation of alliance between the party and the Minister of State, Labour, and Employment, as purportedly stated in Ahanotu’s concocted piece. We urge Nigerian citizens to feign ignorance of such a statement in the form of character assassination against a true democrat and a true citizen, who (Onyejeocha) is fighting to reclaim her mandate”, the LP faction said.
“The LP has no relationship with the minister, neither did the party go against any Nigerian seeking redress in the courts of law. For the records, we need to educate the crops of baby charge and bail lawyers on Julius Abure’s payrolls on the issue of qualification. We submit that the issue of qualification of a candidate as it relates to its sponsorship by a political party is both a pre-election and post-election.
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“Therefore going to court to challenge the declaration of Amobi Ogar by Nkeiruka Onyejeocha is her right that the LP is never against. The LP under Apapa has no problem with the minister as insinuated in the statement issued by Prince Ahanotu. We support any Nigerian citizen(s) whose rights are trampled upon to fight by seeking redress in the courts.”
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