TRIBUNE NG
Aggrieved by the declaration of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election, five other political parties who contended for the seat of power, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and their candidates have filed petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja to challenge Tinubu’s election.
Each of the cases is distinct with far-reaching implications for the victory of the president-elect.
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on March 1, declared Tinubu and and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, president-elect and vice president-elect, having scored 8,794,726 votes, being the highest votes cast during the election.
The petitioners are praying the tribunal to annul Tinubu’s election on the grounds that it was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the constitution, the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines for the conduct of the election.
Legal fireworks in the petitioners’ petitions to upturn Tinubu’s election will commence immediately after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is empaneled by the president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensen, as required by law.
Action Alliance and Al-Mustapha’s connection
The Action Alliance and its presidential candidate, Solomon David Okanigbuan, in their petition marked CA/PEPC/01/2023, joined INEC, APC, Tinubu and Hamza Al-Mustapha as first to fourth respondents.
The petitioners told the tribunal that INEC unlawfully substituted the name of their candidate with Hamza Al-Mustapha, whom they said is not a member of the party and not sponsored by the party for the February 25 election.
They are praying the tribunal to hold that Tinubu was not validly elected and/or returned as the winner of the presidential election and his declaration as winner and his return void as the second petitioner, Solomon David Okanigbuan, was validly nominated and sponsored by the AA as its presidential candidate at the said election but was unlawfully excluded from the election in flagrant non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022.
They pray for the nullification of Tinubu’s election on the grounds that his election contravenes the Electoral Act, the 1999 Constitution, as amended and INEC guidelines for 2023 general election.
