WED. 14 DEC, 2022-theGBJournal| Labour Party Nigeria published a statement reaffirming confidence in the leadership of National Chairman, Julius Abure.
The statement, signed by the party’s Secretary, Labour Party, Lagos State, Chief Sam OKPALA is in response to what it described as ”orchestrated malicious pronouncements made by the erstwhile national publicity Secretary of the Labour Party in person of Arabambi Abayomi during his appearance on a National Television morning show casting aspersions on the leadership of our great party.”
”As leaders and stakeholders of the party, we would have ordinarily Ignored the whole lies and misrepresentation of facts in the aforementioned interview but for the purposes of enlightenment and setting the records straight especially for our teaming supporters and unsuspecting public,” the Party said.
They went on to make ”the following clarifications-”
”The former national publicity secretary, Arabambi Abayomi, being from the Southwest, was initially charged by the party’s national secretariat of Labour Party led by the national chairman Dr. (Barr) Julius Abure to ensure that the party’s candidates for Senate and house of representatives positions are listed in INEC portal for the forthcoming general elections in 2023. The party did this to allow Arabambi prove his critics wrong that he was/is an agent of the ruling APC to sabotage the labour Party in the southwest zone in general and Lagos State in particular as was being suspected at the time.
Dr Arabambi in the course of this task was given all the necessary support and assistance both financially and materially the national leadership as well as the Lagos State chapter of the party.
The Matter in the high Court was so poorly managed and handled by Arabambi and his compromised team, which resulted in the matter being dismissed by the Federal High Court an this development was willfully hidden from the party leadership by Arabambi and his team for reasons only known by them. This poor performance was after Arabambi has collected millions of naira from the party in Lagos State into his personal bank accounts purportedly for legal” fees”and other ancillary expenses in respect of the matter.
To add salt to injury, Arabambi refused to hand over the matter and the case file to the party’s trusted legal team when the demand was made of him by the national leadership of the party since Arabambi and this team did not make any effort to file an appeal against the judgement of the lower court in any appeal court of the land even as he was aware that the window for doing same was elapsing with obvious implications for the party and her candidates. Anybody could hazard a guess here as to why a self acclaimed”committed” labour party man will exhibit such behavior if not only to satisfy his paymasters at the detriment of the party.
At this juncture, it became too obvious that Dr Arabambi and his cohorts were leading the party and her candidates to the point where the party will not be able to file in candidates for elective positions in Lagos state aside the presidency, a development which will be injurious to the interest of the party and her presidential candidate.
As a result of the above, the party had no other option than to defy Abayomi Arabambi and his team and went further to secure the services of another legal firm, which to the Glory of God took up the matter and filed an appeal in the court of appeal sitting in Abuja on behalf of Labour Party and subsequently, this new legal team took up the matter of the appeal and got judgement in favour of labour Party on the 18th of November 2022 for us to send our list of candidates for national assembly elections to INEC for official listing.
Labour Party Lagos state chapter and its 2023 candidates hereby wish to state that the court of appeal judgement given in favour of labour Party by the court of appeal sitting in Abuja was given by a court of competent jurisdiction via an appeal filed by duly nominated legal representatives of the party in a legal court processes devoid of any infraction or forgery as claimed by the embattled former national publicity Secretary, Arabambi Abayomi
Labour Party Lagos State chapter also wishes to absolve the national chairman, Dr (Barr) Julius Abure from any breach of the entire legal process especially with regards to the list of national assembly candidates of labour Party forwarded by the party to INEC.
We wish also to let the whole world know that no candidate of the party in Lagos state paid any money for the party’s expression of interest and or nomination form fees to the personal bank account of the national chairman or any other person for that matter. All fees in respect of the said forms in Lagos state were paid into the official bank account of the Labour Party save from Arabambi occasional extortion.
We therefore wish to implore all members and supporters across the land to ask Mr Arabambi Abayomi, whose interest he is serving by these deliberate maligning and demarketing of the Labour Party and ploy to deny the labour party the opportunity of fielding candidates for the 2023 elections in Lagos state and why is he turning around to fight the national chairman, who has fought like a Trojan for the Party? and that Who between them is working for or against the party?
Finally, we members of the State Executive Council, Leaders, Candidates and Stakeholders of Labour Party in Lagos State hereby wish to use this medium to re affirm our unwavering VOTE OF CONFIDENCE on the national chairman of the Labour Party, Dr (Barr) Julius Abure and his team in the national working committee, while restating that we have implicit trust in the ability and leadership of Abure and his team to lead the party to victory come 2023.”
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