The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of Labour Party (LP) has frowned at calls for the suspension of President-elect Bola Tinubu’s May 29 inauguration until the court cases challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election are dispensed with.
The faction described such calls as unconstitutional and capable of causing chaos, noting that the 1999 Constitution does not recognise.
Spokesman of the faction, Abayomi Arabambi, made this known in a Thursday statement.
According to him, Tinubu’s May 29 inauguration “may not have any impact on the ongoing legal tussle on the presidential election involving our party, APC and INEC.”
Arabambi said 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.”
Arabambi recalled how the court removed Chris Ngige and confirmed Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra State after the 2003 governorship election.
Citing sections 136 and 146 of the Nigeria Constitution, the LP factional spokesman said only death or permanent incapacity can stop a president-elect from being sworn in.
He stated that “what Peter Obi is crying for is not supported by the law,” stressing 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.
Emphasising the illegality of an interim government in these circumstances, Arabambi said 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,” Arabambi further said.