The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party (LP) has distanced itself from the proposed merger talk championed by a political economist, Pat Utomi.
Recall that Utomi had said there had been an agreement between the presidential candidates of the LP, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Aso Villa in 2027.
Addressing newsmen in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, on Tuesday, the faction’s National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, said the party was not in any merger talk with any party because it is illegal.
Arabambi said the leadership of the Labour Party in the country has not directed anybody to engage in a merger talk with PDP, NNPP or any other opposition party.
He also warned the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, to be careful of any merger talk involving the political party.
Arabambi asserted that the party will resist illegal merger talks with any political parties.
He said, “We wish to advise former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that our party leadership has not directed anyone to engage in a merger talk with PDP and NNPP.
“Atiku Abubakar should know that all merger talks spearheaded by Prof Pat Uromi, a PDP political mercenary, wearing the LP mask not from the Labour Party. We want to assure him that our party will resist illegal merger talks with any political parties.
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“The obedient mercenaries should wake up now and refrain from being used further by the Peter Obi/PDP political mercenaries in the LP. The PDP political mercenaries in the LP, Peter Obi, Abure, and cohorts, intended to use LP as a vehicle for the 2027 presidency for the PDP, and we are telling Nigerians that LP is not a party to such fraudulent merchandise merger.”
