Arrest Obi, LP member calling for Interim Govt, Apapa faction tells security agencies

The crisis rocking the Labour Party, yesterday, deepened following the call by the Lamidi Apapa faction asking security agencies to come hard on any member of the party calling for an Interim National Government.

The call to arrest Obi is coming amid demands by some politicians for an interim government, which if successfully pushed, will prevent the inauguration of the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, on May 29.

Speaking with journalists, in Abuja, after the Federal High Court Judgment affirming the suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure, the factional National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi, said that the call for an interim government was an attempt to throw the country into crisis.

“Anyone calling for interim government including Peter Obi should be arrested. We are calling on the Inspector General of Police to arrest them because nobody is above the law. You cannot plunge Nigeria into war and say you want to rule,” he stated.

Insisting that the Apapa-led faction was not interested in withdrawing the suit filed by the party at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Arabambi, nonetheless, said that the case filed by Obi and Abure faction challenging the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) wasn’t done in good faith.

He stated: “We came third in that election behind the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and we are not even challenging PDP in the tribunal, that means we are saying the vote allocated to the PDP is correct in the eyes of the law.

“Both Obi and Abure deliberately excluded PDP in the suit but now challenging APC. Why is he not challenging the PDP? Obi as far as we are concerned is not doing anything in the election petition, he is only trying to play on people’s intelligence.”

Speaking on the directive by Apapa to the party’s lawyers handling its election petition to within 48 hours come to brief him on the ongoing petition, Arabambi warned that failure to honour the summon would lead to change of lawyers.

“I want to assure Nigerians that the Apapa-led executive is not interested in withdrawing any matter, but as the chairman confirmed on Friday, he has the right to know what is going on. This is because the number one claimant is Obi and the second claimant is the LP. So, Obi is not LP and cannot manage the affairs of our party.

“If the lawyers do not honour our 48hrs ultimatum, we will go through the next line and appoint our own lawyers who will now take over LP matter and we will now be doing it side by side with Obi.”