The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has thrown out a suit brought before it by the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, seeking the disqualification of Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The party had argued that Tinubu was improperly sponsored by the All Progressives Congress, APC, for nominating Shettima as his vice-presidential candidate for the election.
The opposition party had claimed that Shettima was still the APC candidate for Borno Central Senatorial District on July 14 when he accepted the nomination for vice-presidential candidate.
Delivering ruling on the case on Wednesday, Justice Haruna Tsammani ruled that it is a pre-election matter, and that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
The court also held that APM lacked locus standi to institute matters bothering on nomination and sponsorship of Shettima.
He explained that APM’s case centred on the allegation that while Mr Shettima was still the APC’s Borno Central senatorial candidate, he was nominated by the party, and did accept the nomination as the vice-presidential candidate of the party.
The Judge ruled that the issue of double nomination raised by the APM was a pre-election matter that ought to have been ventilated at the Federal High Court.
He said the issue of nomination of a candidate by a political party was an internal affair of the party, adding that the issue of qualification of a candidate of a political party was not an all-comers’ affair.
Tsammani noted that the internal affairs of a party, such as the nomination of a candidate, was not the business of another political party.
According to him, APM’s case centred on the allegation that while Mr Shettima was still the APC’s Borno Central senatorial candidate, he was nominated by the party, and did accept the nomination as the vice-presidential candidate of the party.
He ruled that the issue of double nomination raised by the APM was a pre-election matter that ought to have been ventilated at the Federal High Court.
Mr Tsammani said the Nigerian constitution, having established the qualifying and disqualifying factors for candidates running for an election, no court could create other qualifying or disqualifying factors. He said the Supreme Court has followed this principle in all cases.
He set out the constitutional requirements for qualification to run for the presidency:
– The person must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth.
– The person must be 40 years old or above.
– The person must be a member of a political party.
– The person must be sponsored or nominated by that political party.
– The person must be educated to the level of a secondary school certificate or its equivalent.
The court said it has no power to create additional grounds to disqualify any candidate standing for an election.
Mr Tsammani noted that the issue of double nomination of Mr Shettima has been resolved by the Supreme Court.
He rejected the argument of the APM that it had the right to relitigate the issue at the presidential election petition court because it was not joined as a party to the case decided by the Supreme Court.
Recall that the Court of Appeal, Abuja, Friday, March 25 dismissed an appeal by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking the disqualification of Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and his deputy, Shettima, in the 25 February election.
