ABUJA, Nigeria — The highly anticipated judgment in a petition seeking the disqualification of President Bola Tinubu from the February 25, 2023, presidential election was postponed indefinitely by the Presidential Election Petition Court on Friday, July 14, 2023.
The petition, filed by the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, is grounded on claims of unlawful nomination.
The APM is requesting the Court to nullify Tinubu’s election, arguing that his Vice Presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, was unlawfully nominated twice for different constituencies.
Shettima, initially nominated by the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the Borno Central Senatorial District, was subsequently nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate following the withdrawal of one Kabiru Masari.
The APM maintains that this alleged double nomination is a violation of the Electoral Act.
Andrew Malgwu, APM’s counsel, called upon the court to nullify Tinubu and Shettima’s nomination on the basis of unlawful and unjustifiable nomination.
Countering the petition, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the first respondent in the petition, implored the Court to dismiss the petition as lacking merit.
Additionally, the APC, represented by Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, dismissed the petition as frivolous and unwarranted.
He cited a Supreme Court judgment that other political parties cannot interfere in the internal affairs of another party, particularly in matters of nomination.
Echoing these sentiments, Tinubu and Shettima, represented by renowned lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun, stated that the APM’s petition should not have been filed and demanded its outright dismissal.
“The petition ought to have been withdrawn honorably immediately after the Supreme Court made a pronouncement that no party has the right to dabble into how another party nominated its candidates for elective offices,” said Olanipekun in court.
After the proceedings, the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, adjourned the judgment indefinitely, promising to notify the respective parties when the judgment was ready.
