The Labour Party (LP) has withdrawn its petition before the House of Representatives Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The party had filed a petition against the House of Representatives member-elect for Akoko North East and Akoko North West federal constituency, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in the February, 25 election.
Hon. Tunji-Ojo was declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but the LP was not comfortable with the outcome of the election, thus filed a petition before the tribunal.
But the party on Wednesday announced its withdrawal of the petition, claiming that the withdrawal was a collective decision taken by the leadership of the party in the state.
Sequel to the withdrawal, the three-man tribunal agreed with the petitioners and struck out the petition in line with article 29 of 2022 electoral act as amended.
he tribunal also declared that the petition has been withdrawn and subsequently dismissed in its entirety.
It would be recalled that LP had earlier petitioned INEC, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Hon Tunji-Ojo as respondents for omitting the party’s logo on the ballot paper during the election and asked for another election to hold in the federal constituency.
The Party (LP) while withdrawing its petition at the Election Petition Tribunal through its counsel, Femi Emmanuel Emodamori said the petitioners/Applicant have severally and jointly resolved to discontinue the petition.
“The 1st Applicant’s decision in this regard is based on the fact that the 2nd Applicant’s withdrawal would leave her with no utilitarian value in pursuing the petition since she can no longer replace/substitute the 2nd Applicant as her candidate, even if the petition eventually succeeds”, he noted.
He enjoined the leadership of the party at the state level not to spare political detractors that connived with, and instigate opposition to embark on this baseless case against the winner of February 25th federal House of Representative Elections in Akoko North West and North East federal constituency.
Source: The Sun
