BREAKING: Tribunal Cancels APM’s petition against Tinubu, Shettima

The complaints filed by the Allied Peoples Movement against President Bola Tinubu and his Vice President, Kashim Shettima, were dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court for lack of merit.

The PEPC dismissed and labeled APM’s case to overturn Tinubu’s election as “incompetent.”

The court ruled that the APM’s appeal concerned pre-election issues that could only be resolved by the Federal High Court.

The verdict was read aloud by the panel’s chairman, Justice Haruna Tsammani.

The APM petition against the Independent National Electoral Commission and four others was also dismissed by the tribunal.

INEC, the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima, and Kabiru Masari are among the first to fifth respondents.

The panel made decisions on all of APM’s arguments.

Tsammani stated that the petitioners failed to show their allegations and that the petition lacked merit.

The judge also upheld all of the Respondents’ preliminary challenges to the petition’s competence.

Tsammani ruled that because the petition was about Tinubu’s eligibility to run for president, the APM should have gone to court within 14 days following Tinubu’s nomination by the APC.

He argued that because the cause of action was pre-election, the APM lacked locus standi to dispute Tinubu’s candidacy.

Tsammani further argued that the legislation did not permit one political party to question the method used by another political party in nominating its candidate.

The judge also held that invalid nomination or double nomination did not qualify as a ground for disqualification in respect of presidential election as provided in sections 131 and 137 of the Constitution.

Details later…