The legal team of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labor Party or LP has said they will not comply with the ultimatum by Lamidi Apapa.
Apapa, a self-acclaimed factional leader of the Labour Party, had following the ruling of an FCT court, directed lawyers of the LP to brief him on the progress of the presidential petition within 48 hours.
Apapa claimed that the decision of the court confirmed the suspension of Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the party, making him the leader of the party.
“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,” Apapa said.
Responding, the lead counsel to Obi and Labour Party, Levi Uzoukwu, on Sunday, said the legal team has no business with Apapa.
Uzoukwu said: “ He never briefed us; we are not answerable to him and we will never be answerable to him”.
Although, Labour Party’s Lawyers had on Friday indicated an intention to challenge the ruling on its objection at the Court of Appeal, Apapa, however, told newsmen that he was going ahead to take control of the party based on the order.
But the Chairman of the party, Abure, dismissed the comments made by Apapa as merely seeking to take over the party through the backdoor “to satisfy their paymasters” and disrupt the ongoing presidential petition at the tribunal.
Arguing the motion, counsel to Abure and the three other national officers, Ben Nwosu Esq, said the matter was an internal affair of the Labour Party, which the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain.
The court however fixed May 19, for the hearing of the matter.
