APM petition fails to disqualify Tinubu as Tribunal admits, it lacks the power to entertain it

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) petition that challenged the qualification of President Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima on Wednesday failed to make any impact as the Presidential Election Petitions Court declared that it lacked the powers to entertain it.

While delivering the lead judgment on Wednesday, Justice Haruna Tsammani held that the issues brought before the tribunal were pre-election matters, which ought to have been at a high court.

According to him, the timeframe of 180 days within which to determine the issue had elapsed.

“In Alhassan and others versus Ishaku and others, it was held that an election tribunal has no jurisdiction on the primary of a political party,” he said.

He pointed out that the matters of qualification and disqualification are guided by the provisions of sections 131 and 137(1)(a)(j) of the Nigerian Constitution.

He held that the issue the party complained about was an internal affair of another political party.

APM had contended that Tinubu and Shettima were not validly nominated to contest the February 25. They argued that by the combined reading of sections 131(c) and 142(2) of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 and Section 133 of the Electoral Act their nomination was to invalid.

They contend further that when Kabiru Masari announced his withdrawal as an APC placeholder on June 24, 2022 to the date Shettima’s name was forwarded to INEC on July 14, 2022, was 21 days which breached Section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2022, which provides for 14 days for the replacement of a candidate for an election.