The Lamidi-Apapa faction of the Labour Party has reconciled with the party’s chairman, Julius Abure in a bid to present a unified opposition against Peter Obi.
Apparently weary of the leadership struggle in the party, Apapa collapses his faction and accepted Abure as the national chairman of the party.
With this development, the leadership tussle between the two camps may have also been laid to rest.
However, the Apapa’s faction has stated that both factions reconciled to fight the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The crisis between Abure and Apapa almost polarised the party to the extent that both filed separate appeals during the presidential election petition.
In what was described as an anti-party activity to destabilise the party for the benefit of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Apapa had filed a petition to discontinue Obi’s presidential petition against President Bola Tinubu.
The NLC had backed Abure during the war of attrition between him and Apapa.
With the new peace deal between Abure and Apapa, the two camps would team up against the plans by the NLC to take over the party.
Abure, who had enjoyed NLC’s support, fell out of favour with the union following a contentious national convention held in Anambra State that returned him and all his loyal members of the National Working Committee (NWC) to office three months ago.
A source at the LP national secretariat, who preferred anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, explained that Abure felt the urgent need to close rank with the Apapa’s faction following the open revolt and pressure from the NLC and his perceived differences with Obi.
According to the source, “it is the only logical way for him to have a united front against the threat of the NLC in particular. I believe you already know Abure has a long history with Apapa and Abayomi Arabambi before now,” the source explained.
When contacted, the factional spokesman of Apapa’s camp, Abayomi Arabambi, confirmed the development.
Arabambi told THISDAY that they had no problem with Abure from the outset because they knew he was being misled by NLC leadership.
“Yes, it is true. The reconciliation was done to fight a common enemy.”
When asked who the common enemy was, he said: “Peter Obi and the NLC, particularly the NLC President, Joe Ajaero.”
When reminded that the Abure-led party had reserved the 2027 presidential ticket for Obi, the spokesman of the Apapa faction said “That is a complete fallacy.”
He said: “We are together to stop all those political hawks from taking over our party. We thought they (NLC) were fighting for a just cause. But it is very obvious they only want to take over our party and we are not going to accept that.
He added: “I also want you to know that there is nothing like the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign here anymore. It has been dissolved. Everybody has reverted to former governorship and presidential candidates. We don’t want disinformation from the Labour Party.”
