Factional National Chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, on Thursday, said he has plans to attend the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal again on Friday, May 19.
“I intend to go,” Apapa stated this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme when asked whether he had any plan to attend the Tribunal again following his ordeal on Wednesday.
“May be by the next one, I will be recognised,” he said.
Apapa explained that he went to the Tribunal on Wednesday to assert his authority as the acting National Chairman of the party.
Following a court order stopping the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure and other party executives from parading themselves as leaders, Apapa has been claiming right to the chairmanship position but majority of the party members don’t recognise him as such.
But the leadership crisis took another dimension on Wednesday as Apapa was booed out of the Tribunal after his failed attempt to represent the party at the Tribunal.
“I was at the Tribunal yesterday to assert my authority as the Acting National Chairman of the party. When I got there, there was a seat provided for the chairman of the party. I moved down to see Mr Osuntokun and told him that since I am there, he is not supposed to be there,” he said.
But he said he was not recognised, hence, the scuffle at the Tribunal.
Apapa said he voted for LP’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi in Ibadan and the party won in his polling unit.
“The way I campaign for me Obi, may God reward me,” he said.
But spokesperson for the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Tanko Yunusa, said Apapa is not acting in the interest of Obi and the Nigerian people.
He said, “Let me just explain that what Mr Apapa is trying to do is to have a coup d’état against the will and the interest of the Nigerian people especially that of the Labour Party.
“That also shows you that they are not interested. They came with the intention of causing drama in court.”