Court of Appeal dismisses suit against Obi saying he was qualified to stand as Labour Party candidate

FORMER Anambra State governor and Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has won a recent legal battle after a panel of the Court of Appeal judges led by its president Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem ruled he was qualified to stand as the party flagbearer.

On Saturday February 25, Nigerians went to the polls to elect a new president and the Independent National Election Commission (Inec) subsequently declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner. Among the other main gladiators in the contest were Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party and former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP).

Inec chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who served as the returning officer for the presidential election, declared Asiwaju Tinubu the victor of the contest with 8,794,726 votes, defeating Alhaji Abubakar of the PDP, who came second with 6,984,520 votes and Governor Obi who came third with 6,101,533 votes. On May 29, President-elect Tinubu is going to be sworn-in in line with the dictates of Nigeria's constitution.

However, the PDP and the Labour Party have both rejected the results and are challenging Inec in court. Governor Obi, however, faced another challenge as he has been dragged to court by members of a campaign group, who claimed he was not qualified to stand as the Labour Party candidate because he was not a member when he got selected to run for president.

Governor Obi's membership of the Labour Party is one of the major battle grounds the APC presented to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in response to his petition on the February 25 polls. However, earlier this week, in a unanimous judgment Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Governor Obi.

In the judgment which upheld the decision of Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Danlami Zama Senchi, who read the lead judgment, held that Inec merely complied with the law as it has done no more than scrupulously comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 by publishing the names of the candidates submitted by the political parties as required by sections 29(3) and 32(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022. It thus dismissed the appeal brought by a group known as the Allied Peoples Movement.

Justice Dongban-Mensem also described the appellant as a meddlesome interloper and a busybody trying to poke its nose in the domestic affairs of a political party to which it does not belong. He added that the conduct of the appellant/cross respondent in filing this suit can be likened to a case of crying more than the bereaved or taking Panadol for someone else’s headache.