The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party has distanced itself from the calls for an interim government and the agitations that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, should not be sworn in on May 29, pending the determination of the petitions before the Presidential Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The group stated that the swearing-in of Tinubu “may not have any impact on the ongoing legal tussle on the presidential election involving our party, APC, and INEC.”
In a statement made available to Vanguard in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, by the faction’s spokesman, Abayomi Arabambi, the Labour Party noted that the Electoral Act and the Constitution of Nigeria did not give room for a vacuum.
Therefore, whether the President-elect is sworn in or not, there is a right to remove him legally if it is found out that he was not duly elected.
Arabambi recalled how the Court removed Chris Ngige and confirmed Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra State in 2003, citing sections 136 and 146 of the Nigeria Constitution. He said that only death or permanent incapacity can stop a president-elect from being sworn in.
While positing that “what Peter Obi is crying for is not supported by the law,” Arabambi noted that “a refusal to swear-in Tinubu as President on May 29 will create a vacuum in the system, saying the law does not allow this. The law does not provide for an interim president in this circumstance, and even Peter Obi once benefited from the system of being sworn into office despite pending petitions filed against him before the tribunal by Andy Uba.”
Arabambi emphasized that the law has to be complied with, which is to swear in Tinubu as the President. If anyone wants to change the narrative, they will have to change the law. He also warned against any unlawful means of agitations or change of government violently.
The Labour Party, according to Arabambi, will not support any such acts, and the group urged all Obidiots clandestinely parading themselves as LP members and other Obidients who may be agitating that the President-elect should not be sworn in to have a rethink.
