By Reporter
Nigerian youths and sympathisers of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, today May 17, 2023, mobbed the party’s factional chairman, Lamidi Apapa, at presidential election tribunal, holding in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
Apapa was in court to exercise his authority having been granted leave to parade himself as the National Chairman of the troubled party.
Security agents attached to the tribunal had to take Apapa into protective custody to save him from his assailants, but not before he was stripped half.
Apapa, who was in court to witness Wednesday’s proceedings, made an attempt to address newsmen after the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel adjourned the petition till Friday for continuation of the pre-hearing session, when he was grabbed by onlookers, mostly youths.
He had positioned himself before the waiting cameras, after Peter Obi’s lead counsel, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), finished speaking to newsmen on what transpired during the court session.
Earlier on inside the court room, the factional chairman, Apapa and Akin Osuntokun had a face off at over seats.
However, just as he was getting set for questions, a group of youths that identified themselves as “Obidients”, pushed him away from the cameras, insisting that he lacked the right to speak for the party.
The situation degenerated to commotion and Apapa was pushed back and forth by the aggrieved youths, with his ‘Agbada’ torn and his cap removed from his head.
It took the intervention of armed security operatives to pull Apapa who was apparently helpless, away from the mob and taken into protective custody by policemen.
At the time of this report, some youths have regrouped, hanging arou d the court premises, probably waiting to continue where they stopped.