Candidates I Didn’t Endorse Can’t Contest Any Election – Apapa

• Labour Party’s Apapa asserts endorsement power for Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo elections, citing Court of Appeal’s recognition of his faction
• Abure-led faction’s primaries dismissed as contemptuous due to restraining order, as Apapa solidifies LP’s legitimate leadership

Lamidi Apapa, National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has stated that only candidates he endorsed will be allowed to run in the November 11 governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo.

Apapa stated this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

He claimed that the Court of Appeal’s decision in Owerri had confirmed him as the legitimate National Chairman of the party.

According to reports, the court dismissed the Julius Abure-led faction and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Apapa’s faction’s governorship candidates for the election.

You will recall that on the April 5 the FCT High court restrained Abure and others from parading themselves as national officers of the party. As a result, the party appointed the Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Lamidi Apapa, as the acting national chairman of the party pursuant to its constitution.

Sequel to that the party under my leadership wrote to INEC changing its date of primary election earlier scheduled by Abure from April 15 to April 16. Notwithstanding the fact that he was under a restraining order, Abure still went ahead to conduct his primaries for Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa on those dates, he said.

Apapa said, on the other hand, his faction conducted primaries on April 16, making it two primaries conducted by the LP in the states.

Peeved by the primary conducted by me, a candidate who participated in the Abure primary took my candidate to court whilst maintaining that Abure’s candidates were the authentic ones. The case was frantically defended, and the Federal High court, Owerri Division, declared the primaries conducted by me as the authentic candidate as Abure was under a restraining order as at the time he screened candidates and conducted his primaries, he said.

Apapa stated that the court recognized him as the legitimate Chairman of the party.

He stated that, dissatisfied with the FHC decision, Abure’s candidates, including the winner of his primaries, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal.

He added that the court of appeals had also upheld the Federal High Court’s ruling that Abure’s conduct was contemptuous because he was subject to a restraining order at the time of the primaries.

That restraining order is still in force even at the time this judgment was delivered, he said.