LP factions clash over rumoured attempt to overthrow Tinubu govt

Fresh cracks have erupted within the Labour Party, following a controversial petition alleging that top leaders of the party, including its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, are plotting to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Factional National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, on Tuesday, petitioned security agencies that Obi, Nigeria Labour Congress President, Joe Ajaero, Senator Victor Umeh and high-ranking members of the Nenadi Usman faction were planning to stage a “coup” through a nationwide “One-Million Man March.”

Arabambi further alleged that the planned demonstration was a ruse to forcibly reclaim the party’s former national secretariat in Utako, Abuja, currently occupied by the Julius Abure-led group.

However, a rebuttal issued on Tuesday by Usman, through her Senior Special Adviser on Media, Ken Asogwa, dismissed the allegation as a “malicious and desperate frame-up” aimed at blackmailing and destabilising the opposition.

She said, “Let it be stated unequivocally that the leadership of LP is not aware of any planned protest anywhere in Nigeria under the auspices of the party.

“We have neither authorised nor sanctioned any individual or group to march on the streets in the name of reclaiming a property the party has long abandoned,” the statement read.

The party chieftain said the more sinister aspect of the petition was its attempt to link the alleged protest to a coup plot.

“What is, however, more alarming is the fictitious and irresponsible allegation of a planned coup d’état against the Tinubu administration, a claim suspiciously lumped with this so-called ‘One Million Man March’.

“How an alleged protest to reclaim a party office translates to a violent toppling of a sitting government beats the imagination of any right-thinking Nigerian,” she said.

According to her, the claims marked a dangerous return to a “dark era” when government critics were roped into phantom coup plots.

This is not merely a reckless lie, it is a dangerous and desperate attempt to frame up respected leaders of the Labour Party in a phoney plot to destabilise the nation,” the statement continued.

The party also raised the alarm that operatives of the Department of State Services had begun harassing some of its officials on the strength of the petition.

“We warn that this path is a slippery slope that endangers our democracy,” the statement cautioned.

Calling on security agencies to “thoroughly investigate this malicious petition and unmask the true faces behind this sinister agenda,” the Labour Party urged Nigerians to see through what it described as a “poorly scripted political drama.”

It said, “We remain committed to the rule of law and democratic principles, and we urge the Nigerian people to see through this poorly scripted political drama for what it truly is, an act of cowardice and desperation.”