SHETTIMA: INEC, APC React As Tribunal Reserves Judgement In APM’s Case Seeking Tinubu’s Disqualification
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The Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja, on Friday, reserved judgment in the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) which sought the disqualification of President Bola Tinubu over his choice of Vice President Kashim Shettima as running mate in the 2023 presidential poll.
APM alleged that Shettima was still the All Progressives Congress senatorial candidate for Borno South when he accepted to be Tinubu’s running mate.
The party maintained that Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress violated electoral laws and ought to be punished with the disqualification of their flagbearer.
While the case was adjourned about three times since June 2, the APC legal team maintained that a Supreme Court judgment had settled the issues raised by APM in a suit filed by the People’s Democratic Party against the Independent National Electoral Commission.
But the APM lawyer, G.A. Idiagoya, had told the PEPC that the said Supreme court judgment did not affect the party’s case.
The PEPC then adjourned to today (July 14) for adoption of the final written address.
In APC’s final written address, its counsel, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, posited that the petitioner failed woefully to prove its case and is not entitled to any of the reliefs sought.
“The petition is completely devoid of merit and consequently unsustainable,” he stated.
At the resumed adoption of address, Fagbemi said the petition ought not to have been filed because the matters canvassed had been largely addressed and decided by the Supreme Court.
INEC’s lawyer, Steve Udehi SAN, urged the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.
On the cited Supreme Court judgement, APM, in its final written address, told the court that the apex judges did not determine the matter on the merit but simply on the issue of locus (legal right) of PDP to initiate the appeal.
Subsequently, the five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani reserved judgment to a later date to be communicated to parties.
On the Supreme Court decision referred to by the APC, the PDP was berated in a unanimous decision for trying to mislead the general public and the court over Shettima’s nomination as a running mate to TInubu, ahead of the February 25 presidential poll.
The apex court held that Shettima’s nomination did not violate any law.
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