INDEPENDENT
Despite assurances from legal pundits and others, there appears to be unease amongst supporters of the Labour Party that the protracted factional crisis in the party could affect the petition by its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
On Tuesday a faction of the party raised the alarm that the Lamidi Apapa led faction had approached the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to withdraw the petition.
But this was later refuted by the Apapa faction through a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi.
According to Arabambi, the publication accusing Apapa of taking such a step against the party was one laced with deliberate falsehood, an “epistle of personal bitterness, ignorance and complete unintelligent outburst.”
Regardless, analysts told Sunday Independent that there was no cause for alarm over the fate of the petition, noting that no action of any of the factions could jeopardise the petition.
According to Comrade Aluh Moses Odeh, National Leader, All Middle Belt Youth Forum (AMBYF), “The crisis in the party, whether sponsored to weaken the party’s resolve to reclaim its stolen mandate through the courts, is a failed journey, if actually those fomenting the trouble know what the law says.
“Besides, this is not new. In 2007, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) that sponsored Buhari withdrew from pursuing the matter in the tribunal, but Buhari was not affected.
“So, I can say that this crisis will strengthen the party instead of weakening it. Those who are behind this crisis with the sole aim of stealing the mandate given to the Labour Party are exposing their ignorance of the law.
“Below is what the law says. So, any attempt by those party men cannot fly based on the position of the law.
“The Electoral Act 2022 under ‘Withdrawal and Abatement of Petition’, reads: Section 29. (1) An election petition shall not be withdrawn without leave of the tribunal or court.
“(2) Where the petitioners are more than one, no application for leave to withdraw the election petition shall be made, ‘except with the consent of all the petitioners’.
“The above settles those palace moles who have made themselves available as black sheep in the family to be used to thwart the legal battle.”
He added: “The Labour Party is favoured to be an alternative to both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with the overwhelming support it gained from Nigerian voters.
