The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Wednesday, dismissed the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Delivering judgement in APM’s petition, Justice Haruna Tsammani, leading a five member panel of Justices of the court, held that the petitioner failed to prove the ground of its petition which is, double nomination of Sen Kashim Shettima as the Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February presidential election.
Justice Tsammani held that a party does not need to hold a primary election to nominate a Vice Presidential candidate as the presidential candidate has the right to nominate any of his associates as his running mate in an election.
The court also held that the issue of double nomination was a pre-election matter which out to be handled by the Federal High Court and added that Kashim Shettima withdrew his nomination as the Senatorial Candidate of the Borno Central Senatorial District following his nomination as the Vice Presidential candidate of the ruling APC as required by law.
The court stated that the case of the petitioner, having been a pre-election matter ought to be filed at the Federal High Court, not before the Presidential Election Petition Court and added that even if the PEPC had powers to hear the case, it has already become statute barred, having not been filed within 14 days as prescribed by law.
Justice Tsammani observed that the issue of qualification and disqualification of a candidate is a constitutional matter and agreed with the respondents that the petitioner lacked the necessary locus standi to file the case in the first place, since it did not participate in the primary election of the APC.
The panel held that the petitioner failed to prove that Tinubu breached Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022, when he nominated Shettima as his Vice and held that the case of the petitioner was faulty because Shettima never obtained any nomination form for the position of Vice President nor contested any primary election for the position.
According to the presiding Justice, the judgement of the Supreme Court on the case filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and others has settled the issue raised by the APM, in its petition.
Cited as 1st to 5th defendants in APM’s petition marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, are the INEC, the ruling APC, President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and Kabiru Masari.
It would be recalled that the APM closed its case on June 21, after its lone witness testified before the court.
Specifically, APM, in its petition, contended 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.
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 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”.
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 and prayed the court to nullify all the votes scored by Tinubu and set aside his declaration as the winner of the presidential election.
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