Politics

‘Not desire of Nigerians’: LP rejects tribunal judgement

The Labour Party has rejected the judgement delivered by the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which dismissed the petition filed by the LP and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, against President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima.

The LP said justice was not served, noting that the judgement delivered by the court on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, did not reflect the law and the desire of Nigerians.

The party said this in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh.

Ifoh said the Labour Party’s position on the judgement would be made known after consultation with the party’s lawyers.

Ifoh stated: “The Labour Party watched with dismay and trepidation the dismissal of petitions by the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani today 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.

“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.

“What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people will prevail.
We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the wrath 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 judgement is made available to our counsels.

“We urge all lovers of democracy to remain focused and hopeful because a new Nigeria is possible.”

The Star had earlier reported that the tribunal declared that the party’s petition was incompetent.

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (lNEC), on March 1, 2023, announced that Tinubu won the February 25 presidential election ahead of 17 other candidates who participated in the election.

INEC declared that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second with 6,984,520 votes, and Obi of the Labour Party, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.

However, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Atiku and Obi approached the court to invalidate it.

The Star