Labour Party rejects tribunal verdict, weeps for democracy in Nigeria
…As PEPC upholds Tinubu’s victory
By TOM OKPE
As the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) passed judgment yesterday upholding the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 23, 2023 election, Labour Party (LP) swiftly rejected the verdict, saying it was weeping for Nigeria’s democracy.
Nonetheless, the party insisted that it would study the certified true copy of the judgment. It said, despite yesterday’s judgment, it would not give up until a new Nigeria becomes a reality.
In the election, Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared winner by electoral umpire, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1 this year and subsequently sworn in as President and Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces on May 29, 2023.
However, the LP Presidential candidate in the election, Peter Obi, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) presidential candidate, Chichi Ojei, the only female presidential candidate, approached the PEPC to quash the pronouncement of Tinubu as winner, on several grounds.
Last night, the PEPC held that Tinubu won squarely.
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In its reaction after the judgement, the LP said it watched with dismay and trepidation the dismissal of petitions by the PEPC’s five-man panel, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani and ”we reject the outcome of the judgment in its entirety because justice was not served and it did not reflect the law and the desire of the people.”
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, the LP said
Nigerians were witnesses to the ”electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned, but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious.”
The statement read, in part: “What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people prevailed.
“We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the rot in our system. We can only weep for democracy in Nigeria, but we refuse to give up on Nigeria.
“Details of the party’s position will be presented after consultation with our lawyers after the ‘Certified True Copy’ of the judgment is made available to us.
“We urge all lovers of democracy to remain focused and hopeful, because a new Nigeria is possible.”
Earlier, the PEPC in its judgment struck out 17 paragraphs of the petition filed by Obi and LP and held that the Constitutional provisions of 25 per cent votes in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is not mandatory for a presidential candidate who had 27 States.
PEPC said that the word “and ” used in the provisions of the statute means the FCT should be treated like other states of the Federation. According to the court, FCT residents have no special privileges as the petitioners claimed.
Ruling on the preliminary objections filed by INEC, President Tinubu and the APC, who had challenged the petition on the ground that the alleged malpractices were vague, Justice Abba Mohammed stated that the petitioner’s prayers were not specific on the polling units where the infractions were committed.
“The paragraphs of the petition are vague and generic allegations,” he averred.
He therefore struck out the said paragraphs which include the testimonies of 10 out of 13 witnesses that testified in favour of the petitioners.
PEPC said Obi and LP made allegations in the affected paragraphs of malpractices and irregularities in the conduct of the election without providing specific details in support of the allegations.
