The Lamidi Apapa-led faction of
the Labour Party on Saturday congratulated President Bola Tinubu on his victory
at the Supreme Court.
While urging the President to be
magnanimous in victory, the LP faction mocked its presidential candidate, Peter
Obi, for filing a petition which it said
did not take the justices more than 120 minutes to dismiss.
The Supreme Court had on Thursday
dismissed the appeals filed by Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart,
Atiku Abubakar against Tinubu’s election.
Reacting in a statement issued in
Abuja on Saturday, the Spokesman for the LP faction, Abayomi Arabambi,
said Tinubu’s victory was well deserved.
He said, “The victory has now
settled all the controversies that arose from the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
We hope that the President will be magnanimous in victory by inviting the
Labour Party leadership as a partner in the progress of his all-inclusive
government of national unity.
“While we in the LP appeal to the
losers, especially the PDP presidential candidate, to toe the path of
patriotism as a democrat, we urge the winner to be more magnanimous in victory
since the government is for us all.
“The independence of the judiciary
was further confirmed in the judgment when the Supreme Court said there was no
evidence to prove President Tinubu’s forged certificate was presented before
the court. Now that judgment has been pronounced, our immediate mission as one
people must now shift to issues that affect us as a nation.”
The Apapa faction also lauded
Atiku for putting up a strong case despite his loss at the court.
He added, “The former vice president remains a veteran
and not a failure. He gave it all but destiny at times speaks.
“Labour party therefore congratulates him. His
name shall remain relevant in Nigeria whether his opponent likes it or not. The
beauty of democracy is that election divides all democratic citizens, the
democrats and the entire populace into losers and winners.”
The Apapa faction spokesman
however dragged Obi, alleging that he was arguably one of the worst candidates
the party had ever fielded.
He said, “It is on record that
all the meaningless grounds of appeal were dismissed under 120 seconds (two
minutes) by the justices of the Supreme Court. The loss of Peter Obi signified
the vindication of LP’s stance under Lamidi Apapa about his stewardship as the
party’s presidential candidate.
“We also congratulate the
justices of the Supreme Court for taking their precious time to thoroughly lay
to rest all negative aspersions with the best judgment so far in the history of
Presidential Election petition. They were able to prove that Obi in the
petition abandoned the duty to prove substantial non-compliance and relied
solely on the failure to electronically transmit results directly from the
polling unit.”
When contacted for a reaction,
the spokesman for the Obi-Datti Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, told our
reporter that the members of the Apapa faction had a right to congratulate and
support whoever they wanted.
“We can’t stop them. They have a
right to congratulate the President or whoever they deem fit,” he says.
The National Publicity Secretary,
Obiora Ifoh, also declined to give recognition to the group, which he said was
full of renegades.
“I have told you before that we
don’t recognise them and we won’t like to be responding to them. Any party can
have a splinter, we don’t want to patronise anybody,” he stated.
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