Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the February 25th election, Mr. Peter Obi has many hurdles to cross to prove his case and claim his “mandate” at the election tribunal. The least expected of such hurdles is the internally induced crisis tearing his Labour Party apart. The party is factionalized courtesy of multiple court cases and judgements. As things stand today, the Labour Party doesn’t seem to have a legitimate National Working Committee; as the saying goes, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

While the fireworks are yet gathering momentum for the open court trial at the presidential election tribunal next couple of weeks; a lot of positions and legal paperwork have been canvassed and tabled before the tribunal by the political parties and their candidates. The Labour Party is facing an implosion. Apart from the factionalisation at the national level, different chapters are plagued by different crises from Imo state to Ebonyi to Lagos state, where the Mr. Salvador faction has taken a gauntlet against the Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s tendency of the Party. The in-fighting was responsible for the diminishing results of the Party in Lagos state.

The Labour Party is the rave political party of the moment and with that has come multiple crisis. Not unusual with stardom. The Labour Party, on Tuesday cried out for help alleging that a factional chairman of the party, Lamidi Apapa, has approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, asking it to dismiss all the cases filed by the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, in a statement urged the presidential election tribunal to disregard the “antics” by Lamidi Apapa, saying they are out to destroy the party and satisfy their alleged paymasters. “We are by this statement informing all arms of the Judiciary, including the tribunals and courts to ignore the ignoble antics of these compromised suspended members of the party. We are also calling on the police, DSS and EFCC to arrest these enemies of democracy.

“Approaching the tribunals to withdraw all the cases lodged by Labour Party candidates across the board is the height of subterfuge and treachery, and Nigerians will resist this ploy to plunge the nation into unnecessary turmoil,” he said in the statement.” Also, one Anselm, who described himself as Labour Party’s Youth Leader was on Arise Television to say he held the aces to Obi’s victory at the Tribunal as he is in possession of the results in more than 42,000 polling units where the Labour Party did not have polling agents. Suffice to say that he belongs to another faction of the Labour Party.

“Even though we are in the Tribunal, something is missing. We might be wasting our time at the tribunal without the facts from the forms EC8As across the country. It is not by how voluminous your petition is, but a case of facts,” said the National Youth Leader of LP, Iragbe Anselm

Mr. Peter Obi is in court to prove that he won the election. He has to justify that he won the election. To be declared a winner, he has to prove in court that he scored the highest number of votes and that he won 25 percent of the votes in at least 24 states and Federal Capital Territory.

Mr. Obi and the Labour Party had claimed in their petition that there was rigging in 11 states, adding that they would demonstrate this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.

They also alleged that INEC violated its own regulations when it announced the result despite the fact that at the time of the announcement, the totality of the polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded and transmitted electronically as required by the Electoral Act.

Other grounds are to disqualify the president-elect and his vice-president elect on technical grounds of not being in fulfilment of constitutional and electoral act. Among other prayers, the petitioners urged the tribunal to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the 2nd and 3rd respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) were not qualified to contest the election.

If Peter Obi is able to prove the disqualification of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the grounds alluded above, would he be able to do the same against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was the first runner up in the election and a likely beneficiary in case the disqualification of Tinubu succeeds in Court.

There’s also the Peter Obi’s hurdle against the electoral umpire, INEC, who will want to defend all its action pre, during and after the election. INEC will put up a robust defence in Court that would on the surface make it to appear to be confrontational and partisan against Peter Obi but in the true sense a defence of institutional integrity.

Already, Peter Obi, is feeling the heat and has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of failing to maintain neutrality in his petition at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Court in Abuja. Obi’s legal team contended that INEC’s argument that 25% percent votes from the Federal Capital Territory is not a requirement in the 2023 presidential election is “not true” and that the 1999 constitution makes it mandatory.

Additionally, Obi cited a Federal High Court judgment which held that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System is “core” to the election.

But, with a wave of the hand, the APC has requested the tribunal to dismiss the Labour Party’s petition with substantial cost as the same was devoid of any merit and founded on frivolity. It has also said that Mr. Peter Obi was not a member of the Labour Party as at the time he contested the election and therefore lacked the requisite “locus standi” to institute the petition.

All eyes are on the judiciary to rule on Mr. Obi’s petition and others. But, the biggest hurdle to overcome is time. While the petitioners would want the case determined like yesterday the respondents are not in a hurry to make that happen. All cases associated with the election have a life-span of 240 days to be concluded from the Presidential Election Tribunal which is the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the President-elect will be sworn-in on May 29, to commence a new administration. Will that change the tempo and mood of the nation? Only time will tell.