Peter Obi's Request Is Unconstitutional, According To LP's Lamidi Apapa

"Tinubu must take the oath of office on May 29..."

The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party has distanced itself from the demands for an interim administration and the protests that Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, should not take office on May 29 until the Presidential Election Tribunal, which is based in Abuja, has ruled on the petitions.

The party group stated that Tinubu's inauguration "may not have any impact on the ongoing legal tussle on the presidential election involving our party, APC, and INEC."

The Electoral Act and the Constitution of Nigeria do not allow for a void, according to LP, who claimed in a statement provided to Vanguard in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, by the faction's spokesman, Abayomi Arabambi. "So whether the President-elect is sworn in or not, there is right to remove him legally if it is found that he was not duly elected," Arabambi said.

In 2003, the court confirmed Peter Obi as the new governor of Anambra State after Chris Ngige had been ousted. Arabambi cited sections 136 and 146 of the Nigerian Constitution when he said that only demise or irreversible disability may prevent a president-elect from taking the oath of office.

Arabambi claimed that "what Peter Obi is crying for is not supported by the law," but added 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 emphasized that an interim president in this situation is not permitted by law and remarked; "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," he stated. He said, "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."