LP factional leaders in shouting match at presidential election tribunal

LP factional leaders in shouting match at presidential election tribunal 

Leaders of two factions of the Labour Party took their internal crisis to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja on Wednesday.

It was at the resumed hearing on the case filed by the LP Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu at the poll.

Trouble started when Lamidi Apapa, factional chairman of the party, walked into the court room with some of his supporters.
Apapa is locked in a battle with Julius Abure, suspended chairman of the party,
There was a shouting between the two groups when Apapa attempted to sit where LP officials were already seated.

“Who are you?” a party official asked Apapa, who fired back saying, “Who are you too?”
When the LP matter was called, Obi and the party’s Women Leader, Dudu Manoga, introduced themselves.
But when Apapa stood up for introduction as the national chairman of the party, the presiding justice of the court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, asked him to stop, adding that the court would you please not recognise the ‘National Chairman’ on record.
Abure, who sat next to Obi, did not attempt to introduce himself.
Apapa had earlier vowed to take control of the party and to withdraw the petition and motions before the court ahead of the sitting following the ruling of an FCT High Court sustaining Abure’s suspension. The LP has appealed the ruling.
During Wednesday’s sitting, the LP’s lawyers, the lawyers to Bola Tinubu, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are expected to show the extent of their harmonisation of non-contentious issues and motions to be relied upon during the main hearing.