A faction of the Labour Party led by Lamidi Apapa has accepted the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court on the case filed by the party’s presidential candidate in the last election, Peter Obi.
The tribunal on Wednesday ruled that the petition filed by Obi and his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar and their parties are not meritorious and the panel unanimously upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The 12-hour judgment was delivered by the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsammani, assisted by other members of the panel-Justices Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Stephen Adah, Moses Ugo and Abba Mohammed.
Reacting, Apapa in a statement issued by the factional National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, said it was shameful that Obi and his legal team were unable to prove the allegations of irregularities in the February 25 election.
Apapa also accused Obi of allegedly siphoning money donated for his presidential campaign in 2022.
The statement said: “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 that 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”.
Apapa was at the tribunal at least twice to witness the court proceedings as the party chairman.