The legal team of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and and the party has ignored the 48 hours ultimatum given by the party’s factional leader, Lamidi Apapa to brief him about the petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
Bellnewsonline.com gathered from Daily Trust that the lead counsel to Obi and the Labour Party, Levi Uzoukwu (SAN), on Sunday, said the legal team has no business with Apapa.
According to him, Apapa didn’t brief them and so they are not answerable to him in any way.
The team’s reaction follows Apapa’s directive on Friday that all the lawyers in charge of the petition at the election tribunal should brief him on updates within 48 hours.
He was quoted as saying “I want to invite all the lawyers that are in charge, representing the Labour Party at the election tribunal, to give me updates in the next 48 hours because I am the one in charge and the one in the driver’s seat.”
The directive as learnt by Naija News came after Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal High Court in a ruling on Friday held that the court had the jurisdiction to hear the party’s matter and make the order restraining the party’s embattled National Chairman, Julius Abure and three others from parading themselves as national officers of the Labour Party.
Justice Muazu held that the court would not stand by and allow a wrong in a political party.
However, Abure and the legal team had on Friday intended to challenge the ruling on its objection at the Court of Appeal.
Ignoring Apapa’s directive on the briefing, Obi’s legal team leader on Sunday said ,“He never briefed us; we are not answerable to him and we will never be answerable to him.”