Peter Obi Surrounded By Shady Characters – LP Publicity Secretary Alleges 

Aboyemi Arabambi, the Labour Party’s national publicity secretary, has accused the leadership of forgery, deepening the crisis that has gripped the Labour Party.

Arabambi claimed that the party’s leadership altered the judge of the Appeal Court’s signature to add the names of candidates for the Lagos State National Assembly election before submitting the list to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The national publicity secretary spoke on The Morning Show monitored on Arise Television on Saturday.

His allegation couldn’t be independently confirmed as of press time.

Efforts to reach the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure were not successful.

A reply to text messages sent to his telephone number was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.

The national publicity secretary said he has sent a petition to the Inspector General of Police and also wrote the Chief Justice of Nigeria about the matter.

Arabambi said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, was surrounded by persons of “shady characters.”

According to him, the country should not allow “criminals” to follow Obi into the Villa if the party wins next year’s presidential election.

He said: “Peter Obi is a very clean individual. People that have shaddy characters must not be seen around him.

“We must not allow criminals to follow him (Peter Obi) to Aso Rock.”

Speaking on the alleged forgery, he said: “Very soon, police will swoop on the Labour Party headquarters. I have written to the Nigeria Police over it, I have complained to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and I have filed a suit in the Supreme Court over the matter.

“Our party leadership was involved in a forgery of Court of Appeal judgement. I am not going to be a part of that criminal infraction.

“I have written to the police. I don’t want Nigerians to think that it is APC or PDP that sent police to our office. No. It is what our people did.

“Just because they wanted some candidates to run for election, they manipulated and presented false information to the court of appeal and INEC and I told them no because criminal infraction doesn’t have years. And at any given time the police can knock at your door. Because I was involved in that matter at the Federal High Court I have to set the record straight.

“I don’t want anybody to say I am an accessory to the case. I have my facts and figures and I will publish them in the dailies.

“We didn’t have this kind of thing in the Labour Party until Doyin Okupe came in with his bandwagon of people because they are the ones involved in this thing. I have forwarded their names to IGP, I have reported to the CJN and I have asked my lawyers to write a letter to INEC not to publish the names because they were falsified.

“Our members are giving them safe landing, security or cover up, I am giving them the assurance today that all of us will soon go to Louis Edet House to explain what happened.

“When they came to appeal they changed some names in the judgement of the Federal High Court and that is a criminal offence. You don’t change a name. The parties from a Federal High Court are the ones that will go to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.”

He insisted that the Director – General of the Peter Obi / Yusuf Datti-Ahmed Presidential Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe and ten others remain suspended.

Arabambi said the Ogun State chapter of the party had the power to withdraw the membership of Okupe because he failed to pay party dues for six months.

This, he explained, was against the constitution of the Labour Party.

He also said reports of the reversal of Okupe’s suspension by the national leadership was laughable.

Arabambi said the party leadership would be working against the constitution of the party by insisting that Okupe remained a member of the party.

It would be recalled that the Ogun State chapter of the Labour Party Thursday expelled Okupe on the ground of his failure to perform his financial membership status in the past six months contrary to the dictates of the party’s constitution.

They announced his dismissal alongside ten others from the party in the state.

The move was part of the resolutions reached at the end of a meeting held at the party’s secretariat in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Thursday where they called for the emergence of a new director general of Northern extraction to reflect the national character and political balance.

But the national headquarters through the party’s National Secretary had called their bluff, saying the party remained strong and united.

Umar said: “The party has an internal conflict resolution mechanism of handling cases against party members as enshrined in the party’s constitution.

(The Nation)