Labour Party's woes continue as court nullifies Alex Otti's election as Abia State governor

NIGERIA'S Labour Party is facing the prospect of not having any state governor in the forthcoming administration due to take office on May 29 after a Kano federal high court voided the election of Dr Alex Otti as the Abia State governor-elect.

Despite putting in a strong showing in the presidential elections with its candidate Peter Obi giving the two main parties a good run for their money, the Labour Party failed to excel elsewhere. It only has one out of 36 governors, only has six out of 109 senators and has just 34 of out 360 members of the Federal House of Representatives.

However, along with the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party has refused to accept the result of the February 25 presidential elections and is in court seeking to get the result that declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner, overturned. For the Labour Party, the matter has the additional complication of two different factions laying claims to its leadership and earlier in the week, this resulted in punches being thrown outside court in Abuja.

One faction is led by Lamidi Apapa and another led by Julius Abure but Mr Apapa won the most recent legal battle, so is the officially recognised party chairman. However, Mr Abure's supporters have refused to accept this and they nearly lynched Mr Apapa in court yesterday as there are fears that he will withdraw the suit as he is seen as being pro-APC.

To make matters worse for the Labour Party, today a Kano high court nullified Dr Otti's election, along with the candidature of all Labour Party flagbearers in Abia and Kano States. On his ruling, Justice M N Yunusa said that their emergence was not in compliance with the 2022 Electoral Act provisions.

Ruling on a suit filed by one Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, the judge said their candidacies breached the guidelines. According to the judge, the failure of the Labour Party to submit its membership register to Inec within 30 days before their primaries, rendered the process invalid

Justice Yunusa ruled: “The party that has not complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act. It cannot be said to have candidate in an election and cannot be declared winner of an election, this being so, the votes credited to the first defendant is a wasted vote.”