The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has asked the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) and nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election for choosing Vice President Kashim Shettima as his running mate in the 2023 election.
At the PEPC, the APM, through its petition, had alleged that Shettima was a senatorial candidate for Borno Central Senatorial District when he accepted to be running mate to President Tinubu.
According to the APM, Tinubu allegedly violated the electoral Act 2022 by nominating Shettima because he allegedly held dual candidacy.
It then sought an order nullifying and voiding all the votes garnered by TInubu over the alleged double nomination of Shettima.
But the lawyers representing the Independent National Electoral Commission, Tinubu, Shettima, All Progressives Congress and Kabiru Masari (Shettima’s placeholder at the time), raised preliminary objections against the petition, insisting Shettima duly withdrew as a senatorial candidate of the APC and notified the electoral umpire about it before his nomination as VP.
Passing its verdict on the matter, the five-man PEPC chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani dismissed the APM petition.
But in an appeal entered at the Supreme Court by APM’s lawyer, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN), the appellant asked the apex court to declare that the lower court engaged in a “perverse” miscarriage of justice when it dismissed its petition without critically considering the provisions of the 1999 Constitution which stipulates the qualifications for the office of the President and his vice.
The party urged the apex court to void Tinubu’s election on the ground of alleged unlawful nomination of Shettima.
