Crisis rocks Lagos LP as new exco disowns Ekong, others

Crisis rocking Labour Party (LP) has taken a dimension as a faction of the party in Lagos State under the leadership of Omoba Adesoyin Olumide has disowned Pastor Dayo Ekong-led Executive Committee (Exco), stressing that its tenure had elapsed.

Chairman of the faction, Omoba Olumide, stated this at a conference in Ikeja attended by all his exco members, noting that the Ekong-led exco was no longer recognised by law, following the sack by the court of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party under Barr. Julius Abure, who appointed it into office.

According to him, it’s public knowledge that Abure was suspended by members of his ward in Edo State in April 2023, the reason Alhaji Bashiru Lamidi Apapa was called upon to take over the leadership, being the next in line, to rescue the party.

He stated that the embattled Abure,however, “appealed his suspension at the Appeal Court but lost and the case is now listed in the Supreme Court awaiting proceedings and judgment.”

Olumide posited that it was based on the court judgement that he and his team were given a letter by the Acting Chairman, Alhaji Apapa in April this year to act and perform as the executive committee of the Labour Party in Lagos State for three months period in consonance with the constitution, noting that the three months period expired this month of July and had since been renewed by the party’s national body.

He said: “After the restraining order on our party national chairman, Abure, on matters bordering forgery, perjury and criminal conspiracy in April 2023, myself and my team were given a letter by the authority of the now Acting Chairman, Lamidi Apapa, in April to act and perform as the executives of our party in Lagos State for three months in consonance with the constitution.

“The three months period expired this month of July and has since been renewed by our national body,” he said.

The party chieftain said notwithstanding the party’s laid down rules and regulations, among others, the Ekong-led exco had been “going about parading themselves as the state executives of the party in manners that is rather alien to our party’s constitution,” adding that the need to maintain Labour Party’s respectable name made his exco-led to approach an Ikeja High Court to put them in check.

Olumide warned members of the public to be wary of their dealings with the Abure-led body, saying that courts of competent jurisdiction in both Benin and Abuja had warned Nigerians that anyone still having any dealings with them, does so at his or her own peril.