The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) says the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the election of President Bola Tinubu lacks merit.
Justice Haruna Tsammani held that the cause of action of the petition which is premised on the nomination of Senator Kashim Shettima is a pre-election matter and the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain it.
The tribunal also held that the issue of qualification and disqualification of a candidate cannot be decided outside the provisions of sections 131 and 137 of the 1999 Constitution.
The tribunal noted that it was the findings of the court that the issue of the nomination of Shettima as vice presidential candidate which is a pre-election matter ought to have been ventilated at the Federal High Court within a period of 14 days.
It said having filed the petition on March 20, 2023 which is well outside the statutory period of 14 days is statute barred.
Justice Tsammani further held that the issue of invalid nomination of Shettima as the vice presidential candidate is not a ground for disqualification of any presidential candidate under section 131, 137 of the 1999 Constitution and the court lacked powers to create other grounds of disqualification outside the constitutional provision.
TheHintsNews reports that APM in its petition marked, CA/PEPC/04/2023, is seeking “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 by INEC
It argued that the withdrawal of Masari, who was initially nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate of the APC, invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy in view of Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
It is the contention of APM 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 Shettima.
According to the petitioner, 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”.
It, therefore, prayed the presidential tribunal to declare that Shettima was not qualified to contest as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the APC as of February 25 when the election was conducted by INEC having violated the provisions of Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022.