May 29: Tinubu must be sworn in - Labour Party’s Lamidi Apapa

A faction of the Labour Party led by Lamidi Apapa has disassociated itself from Peter Obi's decision to reclaim its stolen mandate.

The Apapa-led group said that President-elect, Bola Tinubu, should be sworn in on May 29, as the law does not support Peter Obi's call.

Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential election is currently in court to challenge the outcome of the presidential election which produced Bola Tinubu as the winner of the polls held on February 25.

According to the Peter Obi, there were several irregularities that occurred during the polls and the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to upload results onto the IREV immediately after collation, a promise Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman refused to fulfil.

There has also been calls to stop the swearing-in of President-elect Bola Tinubu on May 29 pending the determination of the petitions before the Presidential Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja.

However, the faction of the party, said 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.”

Spokesman for the faction, Abayomi Arabambi, stated that the Electoral Act and the Constitution of Nigeria did not give room for a vacuum, “so whether the President-elect is sworn in or not, there is right to remove him legally if it is found out that he was not duly elected.”

Citing sections 136 and 146 of the Nigeria Constitution, Arabambi said only death or permanent incapacity can stop a president-elect from being sworn in.

He said; “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.

Arabambi noted that “even Peter Obi once benefitted from the system of being sworn into office despite pending petitions filed against him before the tribunal by Andy Uba.”

“The law has to be complied with, which is to swear in Tinubu as president, and if anybody wants to change the narrative, they will have to change the law.

“Labour Party warns 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 as Labour Party will not support any unlawful means of agitations or change of government violently.”