By Deborah Onyofufeke, Abuja
The Labour Party (LP) yesterday alleged that the Lamidi Apapa-led faction was working to sabotage the petitions filed by the presidential candidate of the party, Mr Peter Obi, against the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25, 2023 election.
Apapa, who the party said has been suspended, had declared himself the acting national chairman following the sack of Julius Abure by a court.
Others said to be suspended are Samuel Akingbade, Gbenga Daramola, Anselem Eragbe, and Abayomi Arabambi, national legal adviser, national financial secretary, national youth leader, and national publicity secretary respectively.
*Party accuses Apapa-led faction working to sabotage Obi’s petition at tribunal
Acting National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, in a statement yesterday, urged the Tribunal in Abuja to disregard the “antics” by Apapa, who is a suspended Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party.
In a statement posted on the party’s official website, LP said, “We are by this statement informing all arms of the judiciary, including the Tribunals and courts to ignore the ignoble antics of these compromised suspended members of the party. We are also calling on the police, DSS and EFCC to arrest these enemies of democracy.”
Ifoh said Apapa and his co-travellers are desperate to satisfy their paymasters who are bent on threatening Nigeria’s democracy.
“Approaching the tribunals to withdraw all the cases lodged by Labour Party candidates across the board is the height of subterfuge and treachery, and Nigerians will resist this ploy to plunge the nation into unnecessary turmoil.
“Their actions show that they are working against the party and that they are working to destroy the party. If they claim that they have a problem with the national leadership of the party, will they also claim that they have a problem with the candidates of the party? What offence has the candidates of the party committed that they are now moving around to withdraw their matters from the tribunal?
“The leadership of the Labour Party is therefore calling on the tribunals to disregard any letter emanating from our suspended National Legal Adviser, Samuel Akingbade to the effect that all our cases are to be withdrawn.
“We are also calling on the presidential election tribunal to disregard such letters from these ex-officials of our party asking for the withdrawal of HE Peter Obi’s petition,” the statement noted.
Earlier in April, Apapa declared himself as the LP national chairman following a fresh legal battle in the party. In the wake of the development, Labour Party state chairmen in the 36 states of the federation disowned the factional leadership, throwing its weight behind Julius Abure as the party’s leader.
However, Apapa insisted that he is the party’s national leader as the court had suspended Abure and national officers. “Now, if that has happened, what else? The next person should take over,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
*Drama as HDP’s 2019 presidential candidate seeks to stop Tinubu’s inauguration
Meanwhile, the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, have filed a fresh motion on notice at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, seeking to stop the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu from being inaugurated as Nigeria’s new President on May 29, 2023.
The constitutional lawyer, who was called to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in 1982, prayed the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal to prohibit President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from inaugurating the 2023 President-elect come May 29.
Owuru, who participated in the 2019 presidential poll on the platform of HDP, wants Buhari, the AGF, and INEC restrained from taking any further steps on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as the winner.
He had claimed to be the constitutional winner of the 2019 presidential election in which President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in.
Listed as respondents in the motion on notice are President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 3rd, respectively.
The fresh suit marked CA/CV/259/2023, applied for “An order of prohibitory injunction compelling Buhari, AGF, and INEC, their servants, agents, and privies to preserve and give due cognisance and abstain from any further undertaking or engaging in any act of usurpation of adjudged acquired Constitutional rights and mandate as the winner of the 2019 presidential election.”
Among others, Owuru insisted that President Buhari has been usurping his tenure of office since 2019 because the Supreme Court has not determined his petition filed in 2019 in which he challenged the purported declaration of Buhari as the election winner.
He also applied for another order directing and placing on notice that any form of handover inauguration, organised and superintended by Buhari on 29th May 2023 outside the adjudged winner of the 2019 presidential election, subject to the pending appeal, remains and is viewed as an “interim place holder” administration pending the hearing and determination of his substantive appeal on the constitutional interpretation thereof.
The motion on notice filed on his behalf by Mr Odion Peter has been served on President Buhari and AGF through their counsel, Mrs Maimuna Lami Ashiru of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja, while that of the INEC was served through the Head of Legal Department and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr S. O Ibrahim.
Owuru’s motion is supported with an 8-paragraph affidavit praying to the Court of Appeal for expeditious hearing before the inauguration of the president-elect.
The affidavit deposed to by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Adebayo Anafowode expressed apprehension that Owuru’s suit against Buhari would be rendered nugatory unless given a quick hearing.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit by the Court.
