How Presidential Election Tribunal Dismissed APM’s Petition Against Tinubu, Shettima
How Presidential Election Tribunal Dismissed APM’s Petition Against Tinubu, Shettima
The five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani had said that though the three cases challenging President Tinubu’s election were consolidated, they would maintain separate identities.
The Presidential Election Petition Court has thrown out the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani had said that though the three cases challenging President Tinubu’s election were consolidated, they would maintain separate identities.
The 1st to 5th defendants in APM’s petition are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and Mr. Kabiru Masari.
“This petition is devoid of any merit,” the court ruled, dismissing it as incompetent.
The tribunal also dismissed the APM petition against the INEC and the other respondents.
The court also held that the issues raised by APM in its petition contained pre-election matters that could only be determined by the Federal High Court.
Justice Tsammani said, “The ground upon which this petition was presented is that the 3rd respondent as of the time of the election not qualified to contest the election.
“The averments in paragraph 16 as captioned in with the facts of the petition, this ground calls the objection to the incompetence of this petition, therefore, this petition lacks substance and accordingly discountenanced.
“The second ground for the objection is that the petition is an abuse of court process. It is premised on the fact that the petitioners had earlier instituted an action before the Federal High Court in suit number FHC/ABV/CS/1000/215/2022 between APM and INEC and 12 others on the same subject matter as in this petition against the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th respondents in this petition and others.”
The court said the process of challenging the nomination of a candidate is purely a pre-election matter and “the locus standi to challenge a nomination is an aspirant who participated in the process of such nomination.
“In order words, apart from an aspirant who took part in the primary election, no other person is authorized to challenge such nominations by a political party for an election.
“That process of challenging the nomination is sanctioned by Section 84(14) of the Electoral Act 2022 and 285(14) of the constitution.”
Credit: Sahara Reporters
