Labour Party (LP) fabulous outing with over six million votes in the last presidential election and bold showings in some states made enough statement in the political discussions to be considered among the elite political forces in the country. Effectively, the party has pushed itself into the various discourses of political leadership in the country. But aftermath of the elections, its very foundation is being seriously questioned and eroded by both internal combustions and the judiciary interpretation of the extant electoral law in the country.
The daring emergence of the party in the run up to the 2023 Presidential election is not sudden nor fortuitous, the party has been making some staccato electoral impacts since the 2007 general elections when the former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko used its platform to contest.
The victory of Dr. Mimiko in that election transformed the hitherto obscure platform into an emergency platform those who lost the tickets in their parties and are desperately seeking a ready-made platform to test their luck in the general elections.
Each electoral circle, since the 2007 trail blazing efforts of Dr, Mimiko, the party has been producing a sprinkle of congressmen, both at the State and Federal levels.
However, the grand transformation of the party into a national political force, the third force, was in May 2023, when the South Eastern flank of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) followed Mr. Peter Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, into the party to seek the presidential ticket. Obi had earlier paid the mandatory 40 million naira to obtained the presidential expression of interest form of the PDP, but when he realized he might not be able to clinch the party’s ticket, and sensing the reluctance of the eventual winner, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, a former Vice President, in picking him as the running mate, he tendered his letter of resignation on may 27, 2023 to the party secretariat.
On June 2, 2023 Obi moved into LP and by June 6, he was proclaimed the presidential candidate of his new party. Former aspirants, a former presidential adviser, Pat Utomi, Faduri Joseph and Olubusola Emmanuel-Tella were muscled off to step down for his emergence.
Obi, as one of the 15 presidential aspirants cleared by the PDP, had dumped the party, citing “recent developments” which appear in contrast to his personal principles as his reason. He had written: “Since I resigned from the PDP because of issues that are at variance with my persona and principles, I have consulted widely with various parties and personalities to ensure we do not complicate the route to our desired destination.
He continued: “For me, the process of achieving our goal is as fundamental as what one will do thereafter,” he explained in a tweet two days after his defection from the main opposition PDP.
Days before joining his new party, the LP had received a boost as Mr Utomi-led National Consultative Front (NCFront), an umbrella body of the Third Force, in collaboration with Ayuba Wabba-led Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Quadri Olaleye-led Trade Union Congress (TUC) adopted the party for the 2023 presidential election.
The NCFront and the LP’s made frantic efforts to ally with other minor political parties to displace the ruling APC and the main opposition, PDP, from dominating the space.
The party also tried alliance talks with the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC), among others but could not achieve much.
This circle of eye-blinding events, however, is now traumatizing the party and the candidates its presented for the 2023 general elections. Many provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act (as amended) is not sympathetic to most of the events that threw up the party into the nation space, and the emergence of its candidates for the general election. As at last count, more than five victories recorded by the party in the national Assembly election has been upturned by the Election Petition Tribunal, while both the Presidential and States Governorship Election Petition Tribunal have concluded hearing in the all the petitions before them, Counsels have submitted scholastic final written addresses, and the tribunal have gone in recess to study all that were said and written, before pronouncing their judgments.
One prominent fact in virtually all the cases involving the party, however, is the non-compliance with the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act in selection of their candidates. At the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), the main argument of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is that Peter Obi is not properly selected as the candidate to contest the election. He was said to have failed the 21-day notice requirement before the primaries. All parties are require to forward their complete lists of members to the electoral body, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) twenty-one days before the primaries election. It is not only Obi that failed this, the governorship candidate of the party in Lagos State, Mr. Gbolabo Rhodes-Vivour too was said to have fallen into the same pit.
Already, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Ojo Federal Constituency in Lagos State, Seyi Sowunmi was sacked by the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Lagos Thursday (24 August, 2023).
On Thursday, the court declared former Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the APC, Honourable Lanre Ogunyemi as the winner of the constituency.
Ogunyemi had challenged the declaration of his LP’s opponent as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), arguing he was not qualified to contest the election, because he joined the party after the primaries were conducted.
The Tribunal upheld Ogunyemi’s point and while delivering the judgement, the three-man panel agreed with the petitioner that the candidate of the LP was not qualified to contest the elections. It therefore, declared Ogunyemi as the winner.
Members of the panel were Justice Ashu A. Ewah, Chairman; Justice Abdullahi A Ozegya; and Justice M A Sambo.
This is yet another blow on Labour Party, which INEC declared had won a total of 38 House of Reps seats in the 2023 elections. This has been reduced to 31 after several Courts’ judgements.
Just last month, the Delta State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Asaba, also sacked Ngozi Okolie, lawmaker representing Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency in the lower legislative chamber of the National Assembly.
The tribunal nullified the election of Okolie and declared candidate of the PDP, Ndudi Elumelu, winner of the February 25 National Assembly election.
In a 107-page judgment that lasted over five hours, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice A.Z. Mussa, declared that the LP candidate was wrongfully declared the winner by INEC.
Despite the reprieve gotten from the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State few weeks ago, affirming Julius Abure, the authentic Chairman of the party, another controversial ruling has appeared from the hallow courtroom of another Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, Imo State capital, upstaging Julius Abure as the National Chairman.
He was ordered to stop parading himself as the substantial National Chairman of the Party.
In its ruling on Thursday, (24 August 2023) the court affirmed Lamidi Apapa as the substantial Chair of the party at the national level. The court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a matter of urgency should recognise and publish the names of all the governorship candidates produced by the Apapa-led National Working Committee in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states.
In another judicature blow, the court also struck out the governorship candidature of Senator Athan Achonu of Imo State, and others belonging to the Abure-led LP faction.
Reacting to the spate of the party’s candidates losses at the Courts, Lamidi Apapa, the National Chairman of the party warned party members that only candidates endorsed by him can feature in the upcoming off cycle elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states.
Apapa said this at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja, saying that the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Owerri had affirmed him as the authentic National Chairman of the party.
He said that the court also sacked the Julius Abure-led faction and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise governorship candidates produced by his faction for the election.
“You will recall that on April 5 the FCT High court restrained Abure and others from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
“As a result, the party appointed the Deputy National Chairman Alhaji Lamidi Apapa as the acting national chairman of the party pursuant to its constitution.
“Sequel to that the party under my leadership wrote to INEC changing its date of primary election earlier scheduled by Abure from April 15 to April 16.
“Notwithstanding the fact that he was under a restraining order, Abure still went ahead to conduct his primaries for Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa on those dates,” he said.
Apapa said that on the other hand, his faction conducted primaries on April 16 making it two primaries conducted by the LP in the states.
“Peeved by the primary conducted by me , a candidate who participated in the Abure primary took my candidate to court whilst maintaining that Abure’s candidates were the authentic ones.
“The case was frantically defended, and the Federal High court, Owerri Division, declared the primaries conducted by me as the authentic candidate as Abure was under a restraining order as at the time he screened candidates and conducted his primaries,” he said.
He said that dissatisfied with the FHC judgment, Abure’s candidates, including the winner of his primaries, appealed against the judgment to the Court of Appeal.
He said that the court of appeal had also affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court that Abure’s conduct was contemptuous as he was under a restraining order when he conducted the said primaries.
www.focusmagazineonline.com (August 2023)
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