Tinubu Seeks Dismissal Of APM’s Petition As Tribunal Adjourns Hearing Till Thursday

The President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to dismiss a petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to nullify his election victory.

Recall that the APM had in its petition marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, contended that the withdrawal of Ibrahim Masari who was the Vice Presidential placeholder of the All Progressives Congress (APC) invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy in view of Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The party argued that there was a gap of about three weeks between the period that Masari, who was listed as the 5th respondent in the petition, expressed intention to withdraw, the actual withdrawal of his purported nomination, and the time Tinubu purportedly replaced him with Senator Kashim Shettima.

It further argued that Tinubu’s candidature had elapsed at the time he nominated Shettima as Masari’s replacement.

More so, APM, contended that Masari’s initial nomination activated the joint ticket principle enshrined in the Constitution, stressing that his subsequent withdrawal invalidated the said joint ticket.

It, therefore, prayed the court to declare that Shettima was not qualified to contest as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the APC as of February 25 when the election was conducted by INEC having violated the provisions of Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022.

Likewise, the party prayed for an order to set aside the Certificate of Return issued to the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The APC had on Monday filed a preliminary objection to challenge the competence of the petition which it urged the court to dismiss in its entirety for lacking in merit.

Similarly, both Tinubu and Shettima, who were cited as the 3rd and 4th Respondents, respectively, through their team of lawyers led by Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), asked the court to either strike out or dismiss the petition.

The president-elect stressed that the petitioner failed to establish a reasonable cause of action to warrant the nullification of his election victory.

OsunDaily News reports that at the continuation of the tribunal proceeding on Tuesday,  Tinubu maintained that the petition lacks merit and substance.

After all the parties adopted their answers, the five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned further pre-hearing session on the petition till Thursday.

The court directed all the parties to identify all applications and documents they would either concede to or object to during a full-blown hearing of the matter.

The panel equally directed the parties to outline issues to be determined in the petition.