Doyin Okupe has been chosen by the Labour Party to be Peter Obi's running mate. [NPRESS]
The Labour Party has responded to a lawsuit asking for Peter Obi, its presidential contender, to be excluded from the 2023 elections.
In order to prevent Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress, from choosing new running mates, Nigeria's largest opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, launched a lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The PDP also requested that the court determine that Kabiru Masari and Doyin Okupe, Tinubu and Obi's respective previous running partners, be required if they are to run for office together.
The PDP is requesting an order preventing the Independent National Electoral Commission from substituting Tinubu and Obi as the candidates' running mates in the originating summons with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022. The case's INEC, APC, Tinubu, Masari, Labour Party, Obi, and Okupe respondents rank from first to seventh.
By combining the interpretations of Section 142(1) of the Constitution, Sections 29(1), 31, and 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, and INEC's timetable, the PDP asked the court if Tinubu and Obi were bound by their submissions of Masari and Okupe as their respective running mates.
Lawyer for the Labour Party, Alex Ejesieme, confirmed the lawsuit when asked about it. "I have received the processes, and we are already filing a response," he said.
Both Obi and Tinubu had named "placeholders"—Okupe and Masari, respectively—as their running mates.
Since the Independent National Electoral Commission has stated that the placeholder notion is unrelated to the country's legal and constitutional framework, Alex Enumah thinks that the dispute surrounding it could lead to a wave of legal actions.
Nowhere in the Electoral Act or Section 142(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as modified) is a placeholder allowed; instead, the presidential candidate must pick a running mate from the same political party.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be notified of a candidate's withdrawal from the race by the political party no later than 90 days before the election, even though the Constitution and Electoral Act do not permit a placeholder.
By conducting new primaries or, in the case of a vice presidential candidate or deputy governor, by selection, the political party is then permitted to submit the name of a new candidate within 14 days following the withdrawal of the previous candidate, according to Section 33 of the Act.
When the APC and Labour Party ultimately decide on their true candidate, The provisions of Sections 31 and 33 of the Act can be put into effect as late as November 25, 2022, or 90 days before the presidential election on February 25, 2023, by making sure that the so-called placeholder signs an undated letter of withdrawal in advance, when APC and Labour Party then finally decide on their real vice presidential candidates.
However, INEC claimed that the idea of vice-presidential candidates serving as "placeholders" "has no place in our constitutional and legal framework."
Festus Okoye, the commissioner for information and voter education at INEC, responded to the craze in a conversation on the ARISE NEWS Channel on July 11, 2022, saying that the placeholder is a uniquely Nigerian innovation for which there is no provision in the commission's law.
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