PEPC Reserves Ruling On Case Seeking Tinubu’s Disqualification Over VP-Elect Shettima
The Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday reserved rulings in separate motions filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, All Progressives Congress, and president-elect Bola Tinubu, challenging the Allied Peoples Movement, APM’s petition against Tinubu’s Victory.
APM is calling for Tinubu’s disqualification over his choice of vice-president presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, in the February 25 election.
The political party named INEC, APC, Tinubu, Shettima and Kabiru Masari as co-respondents in the suit.
Aside from the Labour party and Peoples Democratic party, the APM is the third political party challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
The APM wants the tribunal to declare that Tinubu’s substitution of APC’s initial placeholder VP candidate, Kabir Masari, with Shettima, is illegal and contradicts electoral procedures.
At the pre-hearing session on Thursday, INEC’s lawyer, A.B. Mahmoud, through his motion, asked the court to strike out APM’s entire petition for being incompetent.
Lawyers representing the APC, Tinubu, Shettima and Masari, filed separate applications calling for dismissal of the petition for lacking in merit and want of jurisdiction.
But Abubakar, the petitioner’s lawyer, countered all the respondents and urged the court to dismiss all their applications against his petition.
Responding to parties, the five-man panel of court chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani said rulings on all the motions is “reserved”.
