The Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party has queried its 2023 presidential candidate Mr. Peter Obi, to come clean on why he has refused to use the BSc certificate he claimed to have gotten from the Department of Philosophy of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and instead preferred to submit his SSCE certificate to the party and subsequently, INEC.
Chief Lamidi Apapa, whose faction of the Labour Party was recently affirmed by the Edo Division of the Court of Appeal as the authentic leadership of the party, said through the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi that its candidate Mr. Peter Obi deliberately left out his university’s certificate from his 2023 presidential form to avoid scrutiny but has turned to watchman on President Bola Tinubu’s certificates.
The Labour Party image maker, Abayomi Arabambi, went on to stsyrthat Mr. Peter Obi will not be allowed to run on the platform of Labour Party in 2027.
“My advice is for him (Obi) to go and start preparing for 2027. But it has to be in another party, not in LP. We are not going to allow this kind of rascality to continue in 2027. We will look for a fresh candidate as far as we are concerned,” Arabambi told Punch on Wednesday.
“Obi is free to go back to APGA to run, not Labour Party. We don’t want to continue accommodating a character who believes no other person, other than himself, has anything upstairs. He is not a good manager of human resources. That was why he lost woefully.
“Let me ask Obi who is accusing President Bola Tinubu of certificate fraud this question. Obi claimed he has a B.Sc. Did he present the B.Sc in his form? Was it not the school certificate he wrote there? Why is he hiding his own B.Sc? That is because he knew they could subpoena the vice chancellor or the registrar to come and confirm its authenticity.”
However, in reaction to Arabambi’s comment, the spokesman for Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, said the Apapa-led faction were only seeking attention and should not be taken seriously. They don’t own Labour Party. That’s why I don’t want to take (join) issues with them. There is no need to give these people attention.”
Also, the National Legal Adviser of the Abure-led faction, Kehinde Edun, chided the Apapa faction, saying it is the Abure faction that the Independent National Electoral Commission recognised. According to him, “do they have any authority over the party?” They are suspended members of the party. So, how can they determine who becomes the flag bearer? These people have turned to comedians”, he declared.
Arabambi went further to state that the statutory authority to monitor and keep records of activities of political parties is INEC and wondered who do the Abure faction plan to present the candidate to?
“It is the same INEC, and the electoral umpire that can only accept nominations from the recognised National Executive Committee of the party. It is also the duty of the national chairman to nominate any candidate.
“As of today, the recognised leadership of the party is the one led by Abure and not Apapa or whatever they call themselves. We are not moved by anything they say. They are just comedians and mere impostors claiming to be what they are not. We know they will soon run out of steam. Nigerians no longer take them seriously because they are beginning to see through their games”, Arabambi concluded