The petitions contesting the results of the 2023 presidential election, which elected Bola Tinubu as president and Kashim Shettima as vice president, have once again been heard by the Presidential Election Petition Court.
The Allied Peoples Movement had raised the same issue before the court on Tuesday, and Tinubu’s attorney, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, informed the court of a recent Supreme Court decision that, in his opinion, seemed to have resolved it.
He cited the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the Peoples Democratic Party’s petition, which asked the court to invalidate the ticket that produced the president and his vice president on the grounds of double nominating them, in its ruling on May 26.
Olanipekun sought to know if the decision of the apex court does not affect the case of the APM, which is also challenging the outcome of the election on the grounds of using a placeholder, Kabir Masari, for Shettima.
“We are aware that the Supreme Court gave a decision on this same matter in the yet-to-be-reported judgement 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 judgement 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.”
Responding, counsel for the APM, Shehu Abubakar, however, requested a short time to enable the petitioners to avail themselves of the judgement to aid their decision.
He said, “Based on the submission of the learned silk, we shall be praying to adjourn the hearing of this petition to enable us to apply to the Supreme Court for the copy of the judgement referred to, to enable us to examine the same and know the effect it has on this petition.”
The court granted his request and adjourned APM’s hearing to June 2nd.
The Supreme Court had last Friday dismissed the appeal by the PDP seeking the disqualification of Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election over the alleged double nomination of his Shettima.
The apex court thus affirmed that the duo of the All Progressives Congress were eligible to contest the presidential election held on February 25.
