On Friday, a faction of the Labour Party known as the Lamidi Apapa faction instructed the party’s candidate for president, Peter Obi, to withdraw his petition before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal due to what they termed a “lack of seriousness” on his part.
Following the incident that took place at the Tribunal on Thursday, the court stepped down hearing in the petition that was filed by Obi and the LP against the election of President Bola Tinubu. According to the faction, the advice became necessary following the incident that took place at the Tribunal.
During their discussion on the elimination of fuel subsidies, members of the LP faction criticised the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria for their refusal to accept the new price of petrol at the pump.
They insisted that the position that the LP took during the campaign regarding the removal of fuel subsidies has not changed, stating that “we cannot reverse that position because it was not our candidate that won the presidential election.”
During a press conference held in Abuja, these issues were brought up by Abayomi Arabambi, who serves as the factional National Publicity Secretary for the LP.
Since the beginning of the PEPT hearings, he informed the journalists that Obi has not been able to provide any evidence to back the claims that he is making.
Arabambi claimed that Obi went to court to challenge Tinubu’s victory because he and his co-travelers had different motives, which went against the wishes of the Nigerian masses, who had freely offered their support to LP. Arabambi’s claim was that Obi went to court to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
In his statement, he said, “We have followed with keen interest the shameful developments and approach by the so-called legal team assembled by Peter Obi challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission and we have, like many Nigerians, come to the conclusion that Obi is not only taking Nigerians for a ride but would continue to waste the hard earned resources donated by Nigerians for this purpose to even enrich himself the position he currently holds.” Obi is challenging the results of
“Every one of you here who has been following this case can remember that on the day that we had an altercation in court with (Julius) Abure’s group, that INEC announced that Peter Obi could not pay for CTC form EC08 and other documents,” she continued. “All of you here who have been following this case can recall that.” Because of this, they were forced to only present thirty percent of the materials that the Election Petition Tribunal would require for the hearing on their petition.
“How could any person with a clear head go before an election tribunal with only 30 percent of documents, knowing that none of those documents would be accepted or agreed to be tendered by any of the other political parties?”
“They reported that two of their counsels were absent due to illness three days ago, and on Thursday (this past week), they were unable to even file a single process with the multitude of SANs at Obi. This is exactly what we have been saying all along, that they are just trying to pull a fast one on the general public, fooling the Obidients, and giving them a false sense of hope that they have something going for them in the courtroom.
“It is abundantly clear from the manner in which they conducted themselves when they wrote a letter to INEC that Obi was unable to pay the N1.5 million. Who exactly are they trying to trick? Were the counsel members ill?
Because of this, we have never wavered from our stance that Obi is not being serious. He arrived at the party without bringing anything with him. He did not contribute financially to the election, the party, or anything else that the party was involved in, and he did not contribute financially to the party. He only came to make a complete mess of everything and convince Nigerians that he has something of value to offer to them, which is a lie.
“The Labour Party is therefore calling on him to put an end to his egotistical ambition and to stop causing problems for the party if he has nothing substantial to present to the tribunal,”
Fuel subsidy
Arabambi made the following statement: “Whatever we have agreed on during our campaign, and as a party that promotes peace, equity, and justice in Nigeria, then we can’t be found approbating and reprobating at the same time.” Once Obi has said that he would remove fuel subsidy from his first day in office, our position is that the same organised labour who stood on that position must not be seen working in cross purpose on the same thing that Tinubu, Atiku, and even Obi said they were going to do. Our position is that this must not be seen as happening.
“Obama stated that the subsidy programme is an example of organised crime that needs to be stopped. The NLC is powerless to call for any kind of strike. If they do, it is clear that they are just being naughty for some reason that is best known to them, or perhaps they have something against the President that they should come clean about and tell Nigerians about. That is the stance that the Labour Party takes.”
