‘Don’t embark on another wild goose chase,’ LP faction urges Obi after tribunal’s verdict

A faction of the Labour Party led by Lamidi Apapa on Wednesday accepted the verdict of the presidential election petition tribunal on the petition of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

A five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani had earlier on Wednesday dismissed the party’s petitions challenging the outcome of the election for lack of merit.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, the faction urged Obi not to engage in another “wild goose chase” by pursuing any case following the tribunal’s verdict.

The statement read: “It is a shame that the legal team of Mr. Peter Obi failed to advise him properly before going to the tribunal.

“Peter Obi has just gone on a wild goose chase. Imagine the candidate who failed to fund the party in order to engage the number of required polling agents. Also, the filing of the witnesses outside the stipulated time has shown that the legal team is a failure.

“Some of us have been saying that Peter Obi decided to go to the tribunal to justify all the money he collected during the campaign, all that money was corruptly siphoned.

“The petitioners alleged irregularities and will use spreadsheets, inspection reports, and forensic analysis as evidence in the trial. The documents promised by the petitioners were not attached to the petition and served on the respondents.

“The tribunal also affirmed that the Nigeria Police, through IGP, had written to the US to confirm the criminal status of Bola Tinubu and the US government had replied in 2003 stating that Bola Tinubu had no criminal records in the US.

READ ALSO: PEPTJudgement: Tribunal laments failure of Obi, LP to prove election malpractice allegations

“Thus, our previous position has now been confirmed that Peter Obi was just all out to defraud our party of donations made towards the 2023 general election which was in a scary sum of $ 15 million and N12 billion that Peter Obi deliberately used for cure Abure poverty lineage and help other Julius Abure’s IPOB irresponsible ethnic irredeemable irredentist supporters in order to have a lifeline.

“Our party is also in tandem with the tribunal that the claim by the Labour Party concerning the blurred 18,088 results sheets is totally unfounded as the party ought to have agents at every polling unit who will have a copy of the result sheet, but here Peter Obi fraudulently converted all monies due to our agents across the country and they all refuse to represent the party at all pooling units

“On Peter Obi’s request that a 25% FCT vote is a requirement before a president can be declared, we noted that this is a shame on the part of Peter Obi’s legal teams to be told in clear terms that Abuja is equal to every other states in Nigeria since according to the tribunal, residents of Abuja don’t have special privileges, every Nigerian is equal.”

The other LP faction led by Julius Abure had earlier rejected the outcome of the party’s petition on the election.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, the group said justice was not served in the petitions against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Tinubu.

It urged Nigerians to remain calm and await the party’s report on the verdict after consultation with its lawyers.

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