Lamidi Apapa, the factional chairman of the Labour Party (LP), says he will accept President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s offer if the party’s leadership agrees.
This follows charges by the opposition party leadership that Apapa was sponsored by Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC) in order to destabilize the LP. He was also accused of accepting a N500 million bribe from Tinubu, which he denied.
Apapa has been at odds with the LP’s suspended chairman, Julius Abure, over the party’s leadership.
On Arise TV on Thursday, Apapa was asked if he would accept Tinubu’s request to reconcile, and he indicated he would if the party approved.
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 leadership tussle in the party came to a head on Wednesday when the factions loyal to Apapa and Julius Abure locked up in a shouting match at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja where Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election is being challenged.
After the court session, a crowd shouted ‘Ole,’ a Yoruba word for thief, at Apapa, as he made his way out of the court.
The politician, who was being shielded by policemen, struggled to get to where his car was parked, but the crowd kept trailing him, recording the incident with their phone. The incident became more dramatic when someone in the crowd removed Apapa’s cap and fled.
