APC asks tribunal to dismiss suits filed by AA, APM, APP seeking to nullify Tinubu’s victory

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has asked the presidential election tribunals to dismiss separate petitions filed by three opposition parties, Action Alliance (AA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Action People’s Party (APP) seeking to nullify the suits challenging the victory of its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.

The three parties had filed the petitions challenging the emergence of Tinubu as president-elect on different grounds with the AA claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had failed to include the name of its authentic candidate for the presidential election, Solomon-David Okanigbuan, and went with a factional candidate, Hamza Al-Mustapha.

In its petition, the APM contended that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election on the grounds of an alleged double nomination of his then running mate, Kashim Shettima, as well as the substitutin of the party’s initial placeholder, Kabir Masari, with Shettima.

The third party, APP claimed that Tinubu, at the time of the election, was not qualified to contest the poll because of sections 131(c) and 142 of the Constitution and section 35 of the Electoral Act 2022.

But in a counter petition filed by the APC at the secretariat of the presidential election petitions court on Sunday night in Abuja by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi, the ruling party urged the tribunal to discountenance the petitions in three separate responses.

In the suit, the APC stated that contrary to AA’s claim, Tinubu “was duly elected and returned as the President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having won the majority of lawful votes cast in the said election devoid of corrupt practices or vices and in substantial compliance with the provisions of Electoral Act 2022 (as amended).”

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It argued that the ground on which the AA brought its petition “is not meritorious and facts in support of same are not availing to validate the petitioners’ claims and/or purported right to present the instant petition.”

The APC also asked the tribunal to dismiss APM’s petition, arguing that “the petitioner (APM) alone in the absence of its sponsored candidate cannot benefit and did not have any special interest in the election or return of the third respondent (Tinubu) as the winner of the election.”

The APC equally faulted the competence of the petition by the APP, arguing that the grounds on which it was founded were not sustainable, while describing the petition as frivolous and an attempt to waste the court’s time.

The APC as well, queried the legal capacity of the party to challenge the mode it adopted in nominating its candidate, arguing that since the APM was not a party member, it did not know “how it becomes the petitioner’s business how it nominates its candidates.

“The petitioner does not fall under the category of persons that can challenge the internal working operation of the second respondent (APC) regarding the nomination and sponsorship of the second respondent’s candidates for the election,” it noted.

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