The petition by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been moved to Thursday by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
Justice Haruna Tsammani directed the party and all respondents in the petition to identify major issues for consideration ahead of the hearing, adding that all applications will be determined during the next pre-hearing session.
Tinubu had asked the tribunal to dismiss a petition the APM filed to nullify his election victory.
Tinubu, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, maintained that the petition was bereft of merit and substance.
The APM had in its petition marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, contended 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 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 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.”
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 at February 25 when the election was conducted by INEC, having violated the provisions of Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022.