Both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu has been ordered to file their responses to all pending applications in the case instituted by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
The order was given by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja on Tuesday by a five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani.
On February 25, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Mr Tinubu as the winner but APM and other political parties and presidential candidates has urged the Court to nullify Mr Tinubu’s victory on account of “his non-qualification as a candidate” of the APC.
At a pre-hearing session of the court on Tuesday, after taking submissions from lawyers to parties in the APM’s petition, the Panel ordered all parties to file their responses to all pending applications before the next hearing date.
Mr Tsammani adjourned the petition until Thursday for continuation of the pre-hearing session.
Lateef Fagbemi, a SAN, who represents the APC and Akin Olujimi, another representing the vice president-elect Kashim Shettima and Mr Tinubu, both said they had responded to the preliminary questions raised by the court.
APM is in his petition urging the court to void “all the votes scored” by Mr Tinubu in the presidential election wants the court to declare the presidential candidate of a rival party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar as the winner of the election.
The petitioner argued that Mr Tinubu’s victory will not stand due to the “flawed process” of nominating his vice presidential pick, Kashim Shettima.
Mr Tinubu while submitting his presidential nomination form to INEC in June 2022, chose Ibrahim Masari, a politician from President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state Katsina, as a “placeholder” for the substantive vice presidential candidate who would later be Mr Shettima.
Referencing Sections 131 (C) and 142 of the constitution, the petitioner said Mr Masari “withdrew his purported nomination thereby invalidating the nomination” of Mr Tinubu as APC’s presidential candidate.The three-week gap between the period of Mr Masari’s notice of withdrawal and his actual pull-out from the contest, APM argued that by the time Mr Tinubu picked Mr Shettima as his running mate, the president-elect’s “candidature had lapsed” and he was no longer in a position constitutionally to nominate a running mate since he had ceased to be a presidential candidate of the APC.
