The Labour Party campaign organisation has debunked the insinuation that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, went into hiding following his loss at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, on Thursday, ended the 171-day legal tussle to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu with the rejection of the election appeals filed by Obi and the Peoples Democratic Party standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar.
In the lead judgment delivered by the Chairman of the seven-man panel, Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court refused to consider the academic records of the President obtained from the Chicago State University, which Atiku sought to tender as fresh evidence to prove his allegation of certificate forgery against the ex-Lagos governor.
The other justices on the panel – Uwani Aji, Mohammed Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Abubakar Tijjani, and Emmanuel Agim, – agreed with the lead judgment which dismissed Atiku and Obi’s appeals.
Amid the hues and cries in response to the verdict from both the leadership and supporters of the LP, many Nigerians had expected Obi to speak up on the judgment.
His deafening silence 24 hours after the judgment prompted speculations among social media users that the former Anambra governor must have gone into hiding or was still hurting from the loss.
Efforts made by Sunday PUNCH to reach Obi’s media aide, Tai Emeka Obasi after the apex court judgment was also unsuccessful. As of the time of filing this report, his line was still switched off.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, debunked the speculation, adding that unknown to many people, the LP candidate travelled out of the country long before the Supreme Court notice arrived.
