Labour Party factional National Chairman, Lamidi Apapa, says he will honour an invitation by the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, if the executive of the party agrees.
Apapa stated this amid allegations by the the other faction of the party leadership that he was being sponsored by the ruling All Progressives Congress to destabilise LP. He was also accused of collecting a N500 million bribe from Tinubu, an allegation he has vehemently refuted.
The embattled factional National Chairman has been at loggerheads with the party’s suspended Chairman, Julius Abure, over the leadership of the party.
Apapa, who was responding to questions on whether he would honour Tinubu’s invitation for reconciliation on Arise TV on Thursday, said he would do so if such meeting is approved by the party.
He said, “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 LP leadership crisis came to a head on Wednesday when the factions loyal to Apapa and Julius Abure engaged in a free-for-all at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, where it is challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.
At the end of the court session, a crowd shouted ‘Ole,’ ‘Ole,’ a Yoruba word for thief, at Apapa, as he was leaving the court room.
Apapa, under the protection of some policemen, struggled to get to where his car was parked, but a crowd of LP supporters kept booing him.
The incident took a more dangerous dimension when one of the party supporters removed Apapa’s cap and fled.