The factional leader of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, has said that anyone with evidence of him taking the alleged N500million naira bribe from anybody should come foward.
He also provided justifications for why he would accept Bola Tinubu’s request to engage in conversation.
On Thursday’s Arise TV Morning Show, Apapa was asked if he would accept Tinubu’s offer for reconciliation talks. In response, Apapa indicated that if the party approved the meeting, he would meet with the former governor of Lagos State.
“Before I honour him, I will consult the executive of the party, so if they ask me to go ahead, I will do. If the executive says go ahead it becomes our position.
“It’s not going to be my position. If they say go and see him or we are going to see him, it becomes the position of the party not the position of Alhaji Bashiru Lamidi Apapa.
“All of us will collectively go and see him. That is if we have the mandate of the house that we are going to see him,” the factional chairman said.
According to earlier reports, the groups loyal to Apapa and Julius Abure got into a fight on Wednesday at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, worsening the leadership crisis roiling the Labour Party.
Abure’s position as the National Chairman of the LP had been suspended by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
However, the tense relationship between the two sides came to a head when Apapa was threatened by a group of enraged LP members on the court grounds, but police officers’ swift action prevented a stampede and stabilised the situation.
The two factions’ struggle for recognition was followed by the uproar outside the court.
The various factions of the party engaged in a verbal spat about which faction was the genuine one just before the court met to resume the pre-hearing of the petition brought by the LP and its presidential candidate against the president-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Apapa refuted allegations that he accepted a bribe from Tinubu in response to the attack by enraged LP members.
“On the allegation of bribe-taking, it’s not true. If you have evidence to prove, bring your evidence that I have collected money or we’ve collected money from anybody. It’s absolutely untrue,” Apapa said.
The factional chairman also said the LP presidential candidate during February 25 presidential election, Peter Obi, deserved to be exposed.
“On Peter Obi taking sides, I don’t want to expose him, but he deserves to be exposed. Sometime ago, in one of the interviews he (Obi) granted, he said he does not know me at all.
“I have been trying to cover him, but he does not deserve it. The reasons are this: This is a man, during his primary in Asaba, I did the opening prayer. And I was not a young officer. I was the deputy national chairman of the party. I have been 21 years in this party. I have held many positions in this party to the level I am today.
“Obi’s first campaign started in Benin. I was in Benin with him. And we used his aircraft from Benin back to Abuja–a chartered plane. Not only that, but when he came to Ekiti (Afe Babalola University), I led the team that hosted him on that campus. We were there for over two hours. I led the team to the palace. And he doesn’t know me?”
