Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the election with 8,794,726 votes to beat Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who polled 6,984,520 and Peter Obi of the Labour Party with 6,101,533 votes to second and third positions respectively.
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But piqued by the result, Obi, alongside his party, alleged that the election was marred by various irregularities while the results were manipulated.
Tribunal Hearings
Justice Tsammani who cautioned against sensationalising proceedings said that if there was enough cooperation, the hearing would be expeditious and all would be happy with the outcome.
He introduced his fellow justices including Justice Stephen Adah, Justice Misitura Bolaji-Yusuf, Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo and Justice Abbah Mohammed.
Both factions of the party, comprising members loyal to factional National Chairman, Mr Lamidi Apapa and those loyal to the suspended Julius Abure-led faction arrived the court.
Eventually, the Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party moved away from the corner reserved for petitioners and their supporters and sat in the main hall of the court room leaving the Abure-led faction at the corner.
In spite of pleas from the newsmen that both sides would be heard, and that they couldn’t dictate to the media who and who not to interview, the supporters maintained their ground.
They resisted any attempt to make Apapa speak to the media saying that he was not the Labour Party chairman and would not speak on its behalf.
The Abure loyalists shouted and dragged Apapa all over the place shouting “You must not talk, you are an impostor, thief, thief” and one even reached out his hand and removed Apapa’s cap.
It took the intervention of security personnel to contain the situation as they battled to free Apapa from the irate youths. The security personnel succeeded in rescuing Apapa from the youths and taking him back into the court room to avert further manhandling from the youths.
Apapa, however, found a way round the situation and was eventually able to speak to the press. He insisted that he was the authentic chairman of the party saying that a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory had restrained Abure and three others from parading themselves national officers of the party.
The factional chairman said the leadership crisis would have been put resolved if the presidential candidate had respected an order of the FCT High Court.
Tracing the genesis of the crisis, Apapa said that immediately the order of court was served on the parties, he was unanimously selected to lead the party in acting capacity.
He said that it was wrong for Obi to still accord respect to Abure as chairman in spite of the court order. Consequently, Apapa was said to have directed all the lawyers representing Obi to report to him for briefing.
In spite of narrowly escaping being mobbed by irate supporters of the opposing faction, Apapa defiantly returned to court on Friday.
“So, you cannot announce appearance for the petitioners,”Justice Tsammani retorted, drawing cheers from the audience and a thunderous “as the court pleases” in the process.
Another member of the panel, Justice Abba Mohammed said Maduabuchi would have advised his client “that you cannot have two counsel representing a client in one suit.”
Going ahead with the business of the day, the court heard Obi’s request seeking live broadcast of the court proceedings.
Thereafter, the court adjourned until May 22 to rule on the application for live broadcast of the court proceedings.
The court had earlier heard a similar application by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, and reserved its ruling.
The crisis of the Labour Party has had many insinuating that there were plots by Apapa to take over the party’s petition with a view to withdrawing it from court.
