The Labour Party has said that it is responding to a suit filed by the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking disqualification of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his counterpart in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.
The Labour Party’s lawyer, Alex Ejesieme, said this while confirming receipt of the suit process.
The PDP filed a lawsuit before the Federal High Court, Abuja against Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Obi and Tinubu from participating in the 2023 general elections, along with their new running mates, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed and Senator Kashim Shettima respectively.
According to the suit with file number FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022, the PDP prayed the court to issue an order restraining the INEC from replacing the running mates of Obi and Tinubu.
The opposition party insisted that the respondents can only participate in the election with Doyin Okupe and Kabiru Masari, whom the Labour Party and APC respectively first presented to the commission.
The PDP listed INEC, APC, Tinubu, Masari, Labour Party, Obi and Okupe as the first to seventh respondents in the case.
The main opposition party asked the court to determine if, by the combined interpretation of Section 142(1) of the constitution, Section 29(1), 31 and 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, and INEC’s timetable, the Labour Party and APC’s presidential candidates are bound by the submission of Okupe and Masari, respectively as their running mates.
The party further asked the court to determine if “by the combined interpretation of Section 142(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sections 29(1), 31, 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, the first defendant (the Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC) can validly accept any change or substitution of the 4th (Masari) and 7th (Okupe) defendants as running mates of the 3rd (APC) and 6th (Labour Party) defendants.”
