There was palpable tension on Wednesday at the Court of Appeal premises, venue of the Presidential Election Petition Court as two factions of the Labour Party clashed.
NIGERIA ANCHOR had reported earlier how both factions engaged in a war of words over who was the authentic Labour Party (LP) representative in court.
Trouble started when Lamidi Apapa, factional chairman of the party, walked into the court premises alongside some of his supporters.
Apapa, who is locked in a battle with Julius Abure, suspended chairman of the party, had arrived the court for the case of a petition that Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the party, filed against the victory of President-elect Bola Tinubu.
He made an attempt to sit where Labour Party officials were and a shouting match ensued.
“Who are you?” a party official asked Apapa, who fired back saying, “You don’t know me? Look at the way you are talking, who are you too?”
As the argument continued, Apapa raised his voice, saying, “Get up, you can not sit down here!”
Secretary of the Presidential election court, Josephine Ekperobe, quickly moved in to ensue normalcy.
Later when the Labour Party matter was called, Obi and the party’s Women Leader, Dudu Manoga, introduced themselves on the record of the court.
But when Apapa stood up to introduce himself as the National Chairman, the presiding justice of the court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, requested him to stop the introduction as the court would not recognise the ‘National Chairman’ on record.
Abure, who sat next to Obi, did not, however, attempt to introduce himself.
Apapa had earlier vowed to take control of the party and to withdraw the petition and motions before the court ahead of the sitting following the ruling of an FCT High Court sustaining Abure’s suspension. The LP has since appealed the ruling.
During Wednesday’s sitting, the LP’s lawyers, the lawyers to Bola Tinubu, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are expected to show the extent of their harmonisation of non-contentious issues and motions to be relied upon during the main hearing.
Shortly after the proceedings, as journalists were about to conduct an interview with the factional Chairman of the Labour Party, Lamidi Apapa, they were met with stiff resistance from loyalists of Julius Abure, another factional leader of LP.
The faction loyal to Abure shouted and dragged Apapa up and down, shouting “You must not talk, you are an impostor, thief, thief, thief…”.
It took the intervention security operatives to contain the pandemonium as they battled to liberate Apapa from the irate Abure loyalists.
At the time of this report, Apapa had been taken into protective custody by the police.
Signs of trouble started when Apapa wanted to announce his appearance in court after the LP National Women Leader, Mrs. Dudu Maluga had announced her name.
However, when the Chairman of the PEPC, Justice Haruna Tsammani noticed the faction in the courtroom, he refused to record their appearance again.
