The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) will hear the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory during the 2023 presidential election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Tinubu with 8,794,726 votes the winner of the February 25 election.

However, the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar who finished second with 6,984,520 votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who came third with 6,101,533 votes took Tinubu to court with APM also filing a petition against the president-elect.

At the pre-hearing session which took place on Tuesday, the APM informed the Tribunal that they had filed a pre-hearing information sheet TF 008 and had adopted the answers therein.

The APM in its petition, contended that the withdrawal of Mr. Ibrahim Masari, who was initially nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy in view of Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The party argued that there was a gap of about three weeks between the period that Masari who was listed as the 5th respondent in the petition, expressed intent to withdraw, the actual withdrawal of his purported nomination, and the time Tinubu purportedly replaced him with Senator Kashim Shettima.

It further argued that Tinubu’s candidature had elapsed as at the time he nominated Shettima as Masari’s replacement.

According to the petitioner, as at the time Tinubu announced Shettima as the Vice Presidential candidate, “He was no longer in a position, constitutionally, to nominate a running mate since he had ceased to be a presidential candidate of the 2nd respondent having regards to the provisions of Section 142 of the 1999 Constitution.”

However, the president-elect asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition filed against him by the APM.

Tinubu, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, had informed the tribunal that their response contained a prayer seeking it to dismiss the petition over claims of lacking merit and substance.

That led to the chairman of the five-man panel of the tribunal, Justice Haruna Tsamani, adjourning the petition till Thursday.

Tsamani also asked the various parties to draw out the issues for determination on the new date.

It was also to enable Tinubu respond to an application seeking an order to allow live coverage of day-to-day proceedings on petitions seeking to nullify his election.
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