INEC, Tinubu, APC seek dismissal of APM’s petition against presidential election

By Musa Baba Adamu

The Presidential Election Petition Court has been asked to dismiss in its entirety, a petition filed by the Allied People’s Movement (APM) challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winners of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu who was declared winner of the poll and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which conducted the election told the Court on Thursday in Abuja that the petition was grossly incompetent, has no focus and lacked legal direction.
INEC which first launched an attack against the competence of the petition insisted that the petition failed to disclose any reasonable cause of action.
At Thursday’s proceedings, INEC’S lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud SAN hinted that the only focus of the petition was to waste the court’s precious time.
On his part, Tinubu and Kashim Shetima who were represented by Chief Akin Olujimi SAN argued that the petition was worthless and ought not to be dissipated energy on.
Olujimi SAN submitted that the APM’S petition lacked focus and also has no clear direction and demanded its outright dismissal.
The APC represented by Chief Adeniyi Akintola SAN made a similar demand for striking out or outright dismissal of the petition mainly on the grounds of incompetence.
The party which was announced the winner of the presidential election insisted that virtually all laws relating to election petitions including the Election Judicial Procedure Practice Direction 2022 were violated thereby rendering the petition toothless.
However, counsel to the party, Mr Salihu Abubakar maintained that the petition met all requirements of the law and asked the court to discountenance the request for its dismissal.
Abubakar who vehemently defended the competence of the petition told the court that the objections by the respondents to the petition were also not laid in line with provisions of the electoral laws.
Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani after taking arguments from the parties in the petition adjourned ruling on the matter indefinitely.