Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), on Friday, reserved judgement in the petition of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) challenging the conduct of the February 25 elections wherein Bola Tinubu was declared as the elected president.
APM is seeking the disqualification of Tinubu on the grounds of unlawful nomination of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
Respondents in the suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressives Party (APC), Tinubu, his vice, Shettima, and the purported placeholder, Kabiru Masari.
At the resumed proceedings in the petition, the court reserved its verdict and adjourned the matter for judgement after the parties adopted their final addresses seeking various requests.
The APM, through its counsel Andrew Malgwu SAN, asked the court to invoke relevant law to invalidate the nomination of Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima.
INEC which is the first respondent, prayed the Court to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit.
Counsel for APC, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, while defending the party, asked the court to dismiss the petition on all grounds for being frivolous.
He contended that the petition died on arrival under the Supreme Court judgement which affirmed that other political parties lack the right to meddle in the internal affairs of another or how it nominates its candidates for elective offices.
Similarly, the counsel to the President and his vice, Wole Olanipekun SAN, argued that the APM’s petition ought not to have been filed in the first instance and demanded its outright dismissal.
He added that the petitioner ought to have withdrawn the case honourably after the Supreme Court delivered judgement in a similar case brought before it by the Peoples Democratic Party against the same defendants.
Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, thereafter adjourned the judgment indefinitely to communicate the date once the judgement is ready.
APM is praying the court to nullify the election of Tinubu on the ground that his running mate, Kashim Shetima unlawfully allowed himself to be nominated twice for the two different constituencies.