The hearing of the petition by the Allied Peoples Movement has been continued until Friday, May 9, 2023, by the Presidential Election Petition Court.
The petitioners asked for more time to decide how to proceed with their petition, and the court granted their request.
The All Progressives Congress’ Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima were elected as president and vice president, respectively, in the election that the APM is contesting.
They argue that Tinubu was unable to run for president since the APC did not legitimately sponsor him because he lacked a properly selected vice president.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, the APC, Bola Tinubu, Kashim Shettima, and Kabir Masari are listed as the petition’s first through fifth respondents.
According to The Spectator, the PEPC on Tuesday, May 30 postponed the APM petition until Friday, June 2, 2023 in response to a comment made by Wole Olanikpekun, a lawyer for the president.
Olanikpekun informed the court that the Supreme Court recently rendered a decision that, in his opinion, appeared to have addressed the matter the APM had placed before the court.
He cited the Supreme Court’s ruling from last Friday, May 26, which rejected the Peoples Democratic Party’s request for the court to invalidate the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ slates due to double nominating them.
Olanipekun wanted to know if the APM’s case, which is also contesting the election results on the basis that Shettima was replaced with Kabir Masari, will be unaffected by the Apex Court’s ruling.
He said, “We are aware that the Supreme Court gave a decision on this same matter in the yet-to-be-reported judgment SC/CV/501/20223 and the parties involved were Peoples Democratic Party versus INEC and three others, where the apex court resolved all the issues.
“We promise within the next two days that the certified true copies of the judgment of the Supreme Court will be made available.
“And we will also discuss with the petitioners whether, in light of the decision of the Supreme Court, there will still be the need to continue with this petition.”
Shehu Abubakar, the APM’s attorney, responded by asking for a little period of time so that the petitioners may use the ruling to guide their choice.
According to the learned silk’s statement, he stated, “We shall be praying to adjourn the hearing of this petition so that we may apply to the Supreme Court for a copy of the relevant judgment, so that we may examine it and ascertain the impact it has on this petition.”
His motion was granted, and the hearing for APM was postponed until June 2.
The third and fourth respondents’ attorney, Lateef Fagbemi, notified the court after the hearing’s resumption on Friday that they have not yet received the aforementioned judgment.
The APM’s attorney similarly informed the court that they are unable to “take a position on the status of the case” until they get access to a copy of the Supreme Court’s decision.
“May we respectfully request an adjournment to enable us to take a position on the status of the petition.”
Following the consent of all respondents, the court’s five-person panel granted their request.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court rejected the Peoples Democratic Party’s plea asking for Bola Tinubu to be disqualified from the February 25 presidential election due to the alleged double nomination of his Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
Thus, the supreme court upheld that the All Progressives Congress pair was qualified to run in the February 25 presidential election.
