The self-acclaimed National Chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, has alleged that the Presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi and the embattled factional Chairman, Julius Abure, arranged for boys, to beat him up, at the tribunal on Wednesday.
Apapa and Abure factions of the LP had on Wednesday, engaged in a physical fight at the tribunal, where the presidential petition of the party was to be heard.
Trouble started when both factions presented themselves as the representatives of the party when their case file was called at the tribunal.
The action, which caused the pre-hearing of the case, to be postponed to Friday, following the court’s insistence that none of the factions, would be recognized as the representative of LP.
Reacting to the development, while answering questions on Arise Television programme on Thursday, Apapa claimed that it was his responsibility, as the authentic chairman of the party, to represent the LP, at the tribunal.
The self-acclaimed chairman, was the National Vice Chairman (South-West) of the party, when a High Court sitting in Abuja, ruled that Julius Abure and some other officials of his National Working Committee, should stop parading themselves as the Chairman and the officials of the party, following a case of forgery, which is still ongoing at the court.
However, Mr Apapa presented himself forward as the new acting chairman of the party, after the court ruling that stopped Abure, from presenting himself as one.
Claiming the leadership of the party further, on Arise TV programme on Thursday, Apapa who threatened to present himself at the tribunal again, on Friday, said it is his responsibility to represent the party, as authentic chairman, at the ongoing tribunal in Abuja.
He said, “It was my responsibility as the authentic acting National Chairman of the party to exercise my authority as representative of the party.”
