The APM had contended that INEC ought not to have recognised Peter Obi as a valid candidate of the Labour Party for the presidential poll.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Obi-Datti Media Office has clarified that the Court of Appeal in Abuja has already settled the case of Peter Obi’s membership of the Labour Party.
The office stated this on Wednesday in a press release signed by Diran Onifade to counter a register submitted to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu allegedly showing Obi is not an LP member.
The statement said, “The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday closed their case in the ongoing hearing of the Petition filed by the Labour Party, Candidate, Peter Obi.
“Among the documents submitted to the court is a register purported to be indicating that Obi is not a member of the Labour Party as stipulated by the Electoral guidelines.
“But apparently unknown to them or they were feigning ignorance that the matter was long settled by the Court of Appeal in a Judgement delivered on Wednesday the 8th of February, 2023 by a team of three Justices led by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Bolna’an Dongban-Mensem, Justice Ugochukwu Anthony Ogakwu, and Danlami Zama Senchi, in the case between the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Labour Party and Peter Gregory Obi.
“The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja then dismissed the appeal by the APM, seeking to disqualify Peter Obi, from being the Presidential Candidate of the February 25 general election.
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“In the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1414/2022, the Movement had approached the court, contending that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ought not to have recognised Peter Obi as a valid candidate for the presidential poll.
“APM said this was in consideration of the time Obi defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the LP. The party argued that the period of Obi’s defection for the purpose of contesting the presidential election violated sections 77(2) and (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“They also adduced that before Obi’s defection, the LP already sent a list of its registered members to the INEC. They then claimed that Obi lacked the right to be recognised as the LP flagbearer because his name was not on the list of the party members that were submitted to INEC.
“APM had urged the court to set aside the Federal High Court judgment which dismissed the suit it filed to challenge Obi’s candidacy on the same matter.
“But in a unanimous decision by the three-member panel of Justices, the appellate court said there was no merit in the appeal filed by APM.
“The Justices affirmed the decision of the Abuja High Court that had earlier dismissed the case saying that ‘the lower Court cannot be faulted, the appeal is devoid of merit, the same fails and it is deserving of dismissal.’
“Obi-Datti Media office wishes therefore to draw the attention of the public to this case and disregard the empty evidence and propaganda of the APC and its candidate in the highly contentious February 25 Presidential election.”
