Tribunal tsunami: LP lawmakers look to Appeal Court for survival

<p>Members of the National Assembly on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, are experiencing a tsunami at the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal.</p>, <p>The development is already threatening their emergence in national politics.</p>, <p>DAILY POST reports that following the outcome of the 2023 general election, the Labour Party inspired by Peter Obi’s movement, emerged as the third biggest party in the Senate and the House of Representatives.</p>, <p>The party emerged as the third force by defeating several established politicians on their paths.</p>, <p>However, the verdicts coming out of the tribunals across the state have been very damning for the lawmakers on the LP platform. Many of the lawmakers have been sacked over lack of proper nomination and other pre-election matters.</p>, <p>The first blow to the Labour Party came from Delta State, where the tribunal sitting in Asaba, the Delta State Capital, sacked Ngozi Okolie as a Reps member and declared Ndudi Elumelu, the former minority leader, as the winner.</p>, <p>In the last three months, several tribunals across the country have sacked other Labour Party lawmakers, including Ibe Okwara and Emeka Nnamani in Abia State, Amobi Ogah, Sunday Nnamchi, Chijioke Okereke, Seyi Sowunmi, Sunday Umeha, all Reps members.</p>, <p>In Etiosa Federal Constituency of Lagos State, the court sacked Thaddeus Attah and called for supplementary elections in some polling units.</p>, <p>However, all hope seems not lost as the Court of Appeal already ruled on the case of Ngozi Okolie and Ndudi Elumelu. The Court of Appeal faulted the ruling of the Tribunal, and affirmed Okolie as the rightful winner of the election.</p>, <p>Legal experts believe that the decision of the Court of Appeal (Presidential Election Petition Tribunal) on Kashim Shettima and Peter Obi will also have an impact on the Labour Party lawmakers, specifically on pre-election matters.</p>, <p>It would be recalled that the ruling APC had during the presidential tribunal, claimed that Obi was not proper