Kaduna LP suspends three candidates, others for alleged anti-party activities

Labour Party (LP), Kaduna State chapter, has suspended its senatorial candidates in the 2023 general election and another frontline member for siding with the Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the party executive, which it described as illegal and counterfeit.

The suspended stalwarts are the 2023 deputy governorship candidate, Bashir Aliyu; senatorial candidates, Ibrahim Bamali and Michael Auta, as well as other members that attended the Bauchi meeting of the Apapa-led faction.

They were sanctioned at the end of an emergency meeting of the State Executive Council (SEC), yesterday, in Kaduna, according to the party’s resolution signed by the Spokesman, Idris Yusuf.

Kaduna LP also dissociated from what it termed “the illegal and counterfeit group of the LP led by one Lamidi Apapa.”

The Chairman of LP in Kaduna, it resolved, remains Auwal Tafoki, adding that any other person parading himself in that position is impersonating and may face the wrath of the law.

“All identified card-carrying members of the LP, who were part of the so-called NEC meeting that took place in Bauchi on Wednesday, May 3, 2022, hereby stand suspended from the party. Among those identified and affected by this decision are Bashir Aliyu, Ibrahim Bamali and Michael Auta.

“These three stand suspended, and this decision will be forwarded to the National Working Committee (NWC) of LP and other relevant bodies for further action,” it stated.

The party called on its members and the general public to disregard anyone or group parading as state officials of LP in Kaduna outside the exco led by Tafoki.

According to the meeting’s resolution, Kaduna LP is committed to ensuring unity to make it the most formidable political platform in the state and in Nigeria to produce visionary and transformational leaders that will take the country to greater heights.

The resolution reads: “Following the sudden emergence of a renegade faction in LP led by one Lamidi Apapa, our great party is being assaulted by agents of destabilisation and commotion. But, as much as they have tried, it is clear that the vast majority of our party members and, indeed, millions of our supporters, are watching the shameful drama by these enemies of democracy with disdain.

“The public should note that the entire drama of indignity is being sponsored by an electoral bandit, whose main aim is to use a fake LP NWC to scuttle the weighty petition Peter Obi tabled before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).

“The intention is to create parallel structures at the national level and over the states to lend support to the dirty agenda of scuttling the mandate of Obi and Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed in the 2023 presidential elections. Therefore, we, the SEC of LP in Kaduna, have unequivocally resolved to work with the NWC led by Julius Abure.”