PEPT ejects Lamidi Apapa from courtroom, as Labour Party decries INEC’s refusal to release Form EC8As

Legal Team of the Labour Party (LP) at the ongoing Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has raised worries over the refusal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make available to them as much as 70 per cent of the electoral materials used in the February 25 poll.

Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi’s suit is marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 with INEC, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senator Kashim Shetima and All Progressives Congress (APC) as four respondents.

According to the LP legal team led by Barrister Livy Uzoukwu, the failure of INEC and its lawyers to provide the documents is now stalling proceedings at the court which are supposed to aid its petition at the tribunal.

Barrister Uzoukwu said INEC has so far made available to his legal team only 30 per cent of the document it requires to prosecute the petition.

LP team told the Presiding Judge Justice Haruna Tsamani that even up till now, it is yet to receive about 70 per cent of documents from INEC, including those from Rivers State.

“My Lord we are yet to receive about 70% of the documents INEC are supposed to give us to aid our case.

“In Rivers, for instance, the REC told LP boldly that they don’t have any Form EC8As to give LP. They also refused to put it in writing even on request,” Barrister Uzoukwu said.

Replying, Counsel for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, however, said he is taken aback by the allegations of the counsel for the Labour party as they did not show up for the meeting as agreed, and walked out of the rescheduled meeting.

Abubakar added that the documents for Rivers and Sokoto states, where indeed provided, but the Labour Party refused to pay the sum of N1.5 million for Sokoto State, and the Form EC8A for Rivers State, have not been given to them.

He added that some documents were given to the party, but they refused to collect it unless it was complete, as he assured the court that they (INEC legal team) were doing everything possible to assist the court in an open manner.

Barrister Uzoukwu disclosed that at least five letters were written to INEC requesting some documents that are very important to the matter but the commission failed to respond.

He, however, said the LP legal team will file another application, in addition to a subpoena INEC to compulsorily produce the documents.

Though the Labour Party team lamented the failure of INEC to produce the needed documents, counsels to the other respondents, including Tinubu, APC and Shettima did not complain over the same problem, as they affirmed being in possession of the needed INEC materials used in the February 25 elections.

Similarly, all counsels to the respondents corroborated that the Labour Party legal team refused to pay the N1.5 million demanded by INEC for the documents certification or certified true copies (CTC) the former needed in court.

According to them, the LP team walked out on a meeting with the respondents when asked to pay the sum.

On the application for live streaming of court proceedings which all counsels to the respondents rejected outrightly, but which the petitioners; Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had requested for from the PEPT, the court fixed Friday, May 19 to make a decision.

Tinubu, INEC, and Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima had opposed the live broadcast of tribunal proceedings, as requested by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and also by the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi.

The respondents argued that the application is frivolous and a waste of the court’s time, emphasizing that the court is not an entertainment venue.

Tinubu and Shettima also contended that the relief sought is beyond the court’s jurisdiction.

INEC, in its counter affidavit, presented similar arguments and asked the court to reject the application.

The court then adjourned pre-hearing till Friday, May 19.

However, counsel to the other respondents, Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC), Kashim Shettima objected to the adjournment, stating that they need to first reply the petitioners (LP & Obi). But the court insisted on the adjournment.

Oracle Today also recalls that the tribunal was compelled to adjourn hearing in the Labour Party petition till May 17 after it emerged that counsels to the respondents, including; INEC, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senator Kashim Shetima and APC, had not filed all replies to the LP’s petition.

The situation forced the LP and its candidate, Obi to move for an adjournment till Wednesday, May 17 so as to give the APC, enough time to file relevant responses to its petition.

According to LP/Obi’s lead counsel, Mr Livy Uzoukwu, ‘it would be ripe for hearing so as to ensure no Party delays any further.’

This is also as he added that ‘they would further use this time to agree documents in contention and controversial documents and this would hasten the proceeding as the court would be able to start in proper.’

The PEPT was forced to adjourn over this perceived delay tactics deployed this early by the respondents.

On the opening day of the PEPT pre-hearing, on May 8, petitioners and respondents had agreed to avoid acts deemed to slow down the process of the court, as Justice Haruna Tsammani, the presiding judge warned them to avoid ‘unnecessary technical arguments and sectional comments.’

According to Justice Tsammani, there was no need for lawyers to file time-wasting applications.

“Let us avoid giving sectional comments. We are determined to look at all the matters, and give justice,” Tsammani said.

He assured lawyers, parties and the press that the panel is not unaware of its responsibility and the importance of the case to Nigeria’s democracy and jurisprudence.

Justice Tsammani further gave the assurance that justice will be served.

“We are determined to look at the matter dispassionately, and give justice to whoever deserves justice.”

He noted that the tribunal would consider the substance of each case over technicalities, so that whoever leaves here will be satisfied that justice has been, done.”

He warned parties against unnecessary applications that could delay proceedings.

All parties, thereafter, agreed to cooperate with the Court during the course of the matter, as Justice Tsammani set the tone for all the Election petitions stating that the court will look at every matter on its merit and timeously.

Meanwhile, drama took centre stage at the PEPT resumed pre-hearing, Wednesday, in Abuja as factional chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Chief Lamidi Apapa, was ordered out of the courtroom at the ongoing PEPT in Abuja after causing a disruption to proceedings over sitting space.

The incident occurred at the resumed pre-hearing sitting of the PEPT in the petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi.

Chief Apapa had attempted taking position at the space reserved for the Labour Party but was prevented from doing so by the Director General of Peter Obi’s presidential campaign council, Akin Osuntokun, and other party and campaign chieftains who had arrived earlier.

Obi had previously been accompanied to the PEPT pre-hearing by the LP’s suspended National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure and also at the last sitting by the party’s Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh.

Apapa had attempted hijacking the party’s space inside the courtroom, despite the court not yet to affirm him as the LP National Chairman, as he insisted on representing the party at the Wednesday pre-hearing, after having ordered the party’s lawyers to report to him on the progress of petition, last Friday.

However, the factional party leader was disgraced out of the courtroom as the PEPT refused him audience, and then ordered the embattled chairman out of the court proceedings.

Mainstream Labour Party body had, last Friday, moved to dismiss claims raised by Apapa that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) State High Court ruling had affirmed him control of the crisis-engulfed political party.

The Labour Party is currently split between two factions led by Lamidi Apapa which claims a court injunction had conferred on it the rightful status of authenticity, as against the much popular and mainstream leadership headed by the now suspended National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure.

The court in Abuja adjourned till Friday, May 12 to consider its earlier ex parte order it granted to the Lamidi Apapa faction, which it exploited to announce itself acting National Chairman.

However, at its resumed hearing on May 12, the presiding judge, Justice Hamza Muazu ruled to proceed with hearing the substantive suit filed by the Apapa faction on which it had earlier granted them the ex parte order.

Reacting to claims by Chief Lamidi Apapa on the court authenticating his leadership of the party, the mainstream body dismissed such, as it restated that Julius Abure remains the Labour Party’s National Chairman.

A statement by the party’s Acting National Publicity Secretary, Ifoh, stated that Justice Muazu ‘only said that he will go ahead to hear the substantive matter.’

It would be recalled that at the adjournment, Friday, Apapa told journalists that he has instructed all the lawyers engaged by the mainstream body and representing both the party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, to brief him in the next 48 hours on the status of the petition before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja, where the Labour Party is challenging the declaration of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu as president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the conclusion of the February 25 poll.

“The FCT State High Court  under his Lordship, Justice Hamza Muazu today said he will go ahead to hear the motion by the group loyal to the suspended Deputy National Chairman, Lamidi Apapa against some of our leaders including the National Chairman, Julius Abure and three others.

“In his Lordship ruling, he said that he will go ahead to hear the substantive matter. As to this, the matter was adjourned to Friday, May 19 for the start of the case proper and for further deliberations.

“Today’s sitting is not for judgement as no judgement was given by the court as Apapa’s group is peddling in their usual way of misinforming Nigerians.

“Meanwhile, Barrister Julius Abure remains the National Chairman of the Party pending the final determination of the matter,” Ifoh said in the statement, Saturday.

At the resumed hearing, last Friday, the Justice Muazu declined to vacate the ex parte order it granted to Apapa, as he insisted on hearing the substantive suit filed by the breakaway faction against Abure and some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the LP.

The decision by Justice Muazu prompted the Abure faction to file an appeal, as, according to them, ‘we are appealing the ruling immediately because we know we will not get justice from the court.’

The Apapa faction is known to be favourably disposed to the endorsement of the APC president-elect, Tinubu, as it also claims to be against the petition filed by the Labour Party, in preference of an alternative solution to resolving the electoral dispute.