The Presidential Election Petition Court has voided the petition by the Allied Peoples Movement challenging the double nomination of vice president Kasheem Shettima, on grounds that it’s a pre-election matter which the petitioner ought to have ventilated at the Federal High Court.
The court dismissed the petition in a ruling in a preliminary objection filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu, Shettima and Kabiru Masari, who were 1st to 5th respondents, respectively.
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The five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, the process is an abuse of court process, as the issue of double nomination is not a constitutional matter.
In further holding that the suit was incompetent, the court 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.
However, delivering judgment in the main petition, 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, adding that it was the president’s prerogative to choose his running mate.
More details later. . .
