The Labour Party (LP) factional leader, Lamidi Apapa, has denied the report making rounds on social media that he collected money from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to work against the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Apapa has been accused by members and supporters of the Labour Party of receiving money from the APC to work Asin favour of the ‘President-elect’ and thwart Obi’s presidential election petition.
But in an interview with Channels TV, Apapa denied the allegation asking anyone who is courageous enough to come out with evidence to prove that he received any bribe from anyone.
Apapa further called Obi a liar and forgetful for saying that he doesn’t know him despite serving as the former Deputy National Chairman of the party.
He said, “For allegations of bribe-taking, it is not true. I have told them severally, if you have evidence to prove, bring your evidence that I have collected money or we have collected money from anybody. It is absolutely untrue.
“For Peter Obi taking side, I don’t mean to expose anybody but he deserves to be exposed. Sometime ago, in one of the interviews he granted, he said he does not know me at all. I want to tell the whole world that he is a liar.
“Why I said he is a liar is that I have been trying to cover him but he does not deserve it. The reasons are, he is a man during his primary in Asaba, I did the opening prayer, and I was not a young officer. I was the Deputy National Chairman of the party then. I have been 21 years in this party.
“I started with the party when it was formed and I have held a lot of positions in the party to the level I am today.
“After the opening prayer in Asaba, his first campaign started in Benin, I was in Benin with him, and we used his aircraft from Benin back to Abuja, chartered plane. Not only that, when he came to Afe Babalola University, Ekiti, I led the team that hosted him on that campus. We were there for over two hours.
“I led the team to the Palace of Owo Ado Ekiti, and he doesn’t know me? He is a liar. We moved from there to Ondo State. I was there. I led the team. The same thing to Osogbo. I was there. I led the team. I have been saying that he is being forgetful but this time around, he is a liar.
“There was a time they alleged that the campaign that took place in Ibadan, that is my base, that I was not there. Obi was the cause. I was with him in Abuja. We were to leave Abuja with his aircraft but the airport gave us small aircraft, and if he is somebody that has value for positions and age, even if there would be four, I should be one of them.
“I was excluded and asked to join another aircraft. I joined the aircraft to Akure and before I got a vehicle to Ibadan, it was already dark.
“So, that is not true at all. I have never taken kobo from anybody and anybody who is courageous enough to say this is the evidence against you, I will be happy to see such a person.”
