The President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has prayed the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting in Abuja to discountenance a petition, instituted by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) that seeks to nullify his election victory.
Counsel to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, averred that the case in the petition marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023 lack merit and substance.
Relying on Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, APM maintained that the withdrawal of Mr. Ibrahim Masari who was initially nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy.
The party through its counsel, Mr. M. O. Atoyebi, SAN, 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 and the actual withdrawal of his purported nomination, and the time Tinubu purportedly replaced him with Senator Kashim Shettima.
They further argued that Tinubu’s candidature had elapsed as at the time he nominated Shettima as Masari’s replacement.
According to the petitioner, as at the time Tinubu announced Shettima as the Vice Presidential candidate, “he was no longer in a position, constitutionally, to nominate a running mate since he had ceased to be a presidential candidate of the 2nd Respondent having regards to the provisions of section 142 of the 1999 Constitution”.
The party further 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 at February 25 when the election was conducted by INEC having violated the provisions the of Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
It want an order nullifying and voiding all the votes scored by Tinubu in the presidential election in view of his non-qualification as a candidate of the APC”.
As well as an order to set aside the Certificate of Return that was issued to the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
