APC’s petition challenging Peter Obi’s LP membership is incompetent — Tribunal rules

The Presidential Election Tribunal on Wednesday, September 6, ruled that APC’s petition challenging Obi’s membership of the Labour Party (LP) as incompetent.

The ruling delivered by Justices Abba Mohammed, a member of the five-man panel, strongly emphasised the internal nature of political party membership matters, asserting that they should not be subject to external legal challenges.

According to him, “Only a political party can determine who its members are, and that no other person or entity can probe into it.”

The court also faults the respondents’ objection which faulted the Labour Party’s petition on the grounds that it failed to join Atiku Abubakar who came second in the election.

The judge said a petitioner is not under any obligation to join a candidate who lost the election like himself in his petition.

He said a petitioner is only obligated to join the person and the political party who won the election and the commission who conducted the election as parties to his petition.