Peter Obi isn't picking my calls, Apapa laments over LP chairmanship tussle

Lamidi Apapa and Peter Obi

The self-proclaimed acting Labour Party Chairman said all his efforts to bring Obi on board have proven unsuccessful thus far.

The acting National Chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, has said the party's presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has refused to pick up his calls for reconciliation on the crisis rocking the party.

Apapa said this following a recent decision of the national working committee of the Labour Party to suspend him alongside five others over “anti-party activities, contravening the constitution of the party and running of parallel leadership and putting the party in total disrepute.”

At the meeting, held in Asaba, Delta State capital on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, Obi declared his support for Julius Abure, the embattled National Chairman, whom a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court had barred from parading himself as the party's helmsman.

Reacting to the development, Apapa, during an interview on Channels Television's Politics Today programme on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, said the purported meeting in Asaba lacked the authority to axe him from the party.

Declaring his suspension invalid, Apapa insisted that he is still the acting national chairman of the Labour Party.

He said, “I was not suspended. I was not invited to the NEC meeting. They think that I was not supposed to be there. As of today, I’m the only legitimate acting national chairman of the party.

“I’m not struggling with Abure. I’m there in an acting capacity. The constitution of the party is so clear on this, that for whatever reason if the national chairman is unable to perform his role, the deputy takes over. That is exactly what has happened.

“Nobody is sponsoring me. Nobody has suspended me. I remain the acting national chairman of the party. I maintain that.”

Asked if he was ready to reconcile with Abure and Obi for the sake of the party, the self-proclaimed chairman said he is open to a reconciliation talk.

Speaking further, Apapa said all his efforts to bring the former Anambra State governor on board have proven unsuccessful thus far

"I've called his excellency but my phone was not picked. I called him, my phone was not picked. Obi didn't pick my call."