LP lawmakers seek refuge in Appeal Court from the impending tribunal tsunami

The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal is being hit like a tsunami by members of the National Assembly running on the Labour Party, LP, platform.

Their potential rise to national power is being jeopardized by this new trend.

According to a report by InfoStride News, the Labour Party, which was motivated by Peter Obi’s movement, came in as the third largest party in the Senate and the House of Representatives after the 2023 general election.

By toppling some long-standing politicians, the party emerged as a viable third option.

But the decisions from the courts across the state have been devastating for the LP MPs. Lack of proper nomination and other pre-election concerns have led to the dismissal of many legislators.

Asaba, the capital of Delta State, is where the tribunal seated that dealt the first blow to the Labour Party when it removed Ngozi Okolie as a member of the House of Representatives and deemed Ndudi Elumelu, the previous minority leader, the winner.

Ibe Okwara and Emeka Nnamani in Abia State, together with Reps members Amobi Ogah, Sunday Nnamchi, Chijioke Okereke, Seyi Sowunmi, and Sunday Umeha, have all been removed from office by various tribunals in the previous three months.

The court removed Thaddeus Attah as the representative for Lagos State’s Etiosa Federal Constituency and ordered re-voting in several precincts.

The case of Ngozi Okolie and Ndudi Elumelu has already been decided by the Court of Appeal, therefore not all hope is lost. The Court of Appeal reversed the Tribunal’s decision, declaring Okolie the election’s legitimate victor.

According to legal experts, the Labour Party legislators will be affected by the Court of Appeal’s (Presidential Election Petition Tribunal) ruling on Kashim Shettima and Peter Obi, particularly in pre-election matters.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had argued that Obi was not officially nominated as the party’s presidential candidate during the presidential tribunal, but the tribunal decided that this was a pre-election issue.

A similar ruling was made with the double nomination case against Shattima prior to the election.

Lawyer Tejumola Banigbe informed the press that the presidential tribunal’s decision could set a precedent that would affect the destiny of the Labour Party legislators.

To begin, party membership is not an electoral issue but rather an issue within the party itself.

“Anyone who is not a member of such party and who challenges the same is considered an encroaching invader under the law.

In the case APM v. INEC (reported in 2023), the PEPT ruled that party membership was a settled matter. According to Banigbe, “no section of the Electoral Act supersedes the constitution,” and this particular ground does not serve as a foundation of qualifying in the constitution.

However, he cautioned that it could be premature to preempt the ruling of the appellant court due to “recurring inconsistencies in the judgments of various judicial divisions of this Appellate Court.”

The Nigerian judicial system has come under fire in recent years due to rulings that many have argued are inconsistent.

One need just think about Ahmad Lawan to be reminded of this.

Abuja attorney Henry Eni-Otu believes the Labour Party will get confirmation from the Court of Appeal.

The appellate court would likely reverse the lower courts’ decisions and reinstate the elected officials who were originally disqualified due to issues with their nomination, sponsorship, or party membership.

“As equally trite, the issue of membership in a Party is non-justiciable,” he remarked.

Furthermore, he stated, “The question of nomination and sponsorship as rightly decided by the Presidential Tribunal is pre-election and cannot be adjudicated upon at the Election Tribunal.”

On the other hand, “where there is an earlier judgment on the question of qualification, sponsorship, and nomination, such a judgment can be brought forth at the Election Tribunal,” as the PEPT puts it.

The New Nigeria Peoples Party is having similar problems with the Kano State tribunal.

Three seats in the House of Representatives have been lost by the NNPP so far.

The NNPP, however, was given a reprieve last week when the Court of Appeal in Abuja, Nigeria, upheld Umar Zakari’s election despite the lower court’s finding to the contrary.

Both the NNPP and the Labour Party legislators’ futures rest in the hands of the Appeal Court.