THE CABLE NG
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the presidential election petition tribunal to dismiss petitions filed by three political parties against the return of its candidate, Bola Tinubu, as president-elect.
The three political parties are the Action Alliance (AA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Action Peoples Party (APP).
AA, in its petition, sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC, Tinubu and Hamza Al-Mustapha, its factional presidential candidate.
The party averred that Al-Mustapha was not the preferred candidate, thus, the party was excluded from the poll.
In the petition marked CA/PEPC/04/2023, the APM joined INEC, APC, Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and Kabir Masari, who stood as vice-presidential placeholder during the primaries before he was substituted with Shettima.
The APM is contending that Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest the election on the grounds of the alleged double nomination of the vice president-elect.
In the third petition marked CA/PEPC/02/2023, APP is challenging the outcome of the presidential election.
The APC’s responses to the petitions were filed on Sunday night by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi.
The ruling party argued that the grounds 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”.
“Issues of nomination, sponsorship and exclusion of candidates for an election are issues that precede the conduct of an election and are preelection matters that cannot be raised or canvased before an election tribunal,” the APC said.
