Labour Party rejects tribunal's verdicts, plots next move

The Labour Party has rejected the judgements delivered by the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) in its petitions against the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25, 2023, election.

This is coming a few hours after the PEPC, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, ruled in favour of Tinubu in all the petitions filed by the Labour Party.

Reacting to the development, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiorah Ifoh, said justice was not served in the petitions against the President and his party.

In a statement on the evening of Wednesday, September 6, 2023, Ifoh said the party would announce its next course of action upon consultations with its lawyers after receiving the Certified True Copy of the judgments.

According to the Labour Party, the court’s judgment “did not reflect the law and the desire of the people”.

“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious,” the statement partly read.

“What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people will prevail.

“We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the wrath in our system. We can only weep for democracy in Nigeria but we refuse to give up on Nigeria.

“Details of the party’s position will be presented after consultation with our lawyers after the Certified True Copy of the judgment is made available to us.”

Pulse reports that Obi and the Labour Party lost their bid to nullify Tinubu's victory over claims that he failed to score 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The petitioners, similarly, failed to find luck in the quest to establish a drug indictment against Tinubu in a money forfeiture case in the United States, while the court also dismissed the testimonies of 10 out of 13 witnesses presented by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate.