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JUST IN: Tribunal Dismisses APM’s Petition Against Tinubu, Says It’s Abuse Of Court Process

Published

2 years ago

September 6, 2023

The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, has dismissed as incompetent, the case the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, filed to nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election.

The court held that issues the APM raised in its petition contained pre-election matters that could only be determined by the Federal High Court.

Chairman of the panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani, who read the ruling, upheld preliminary objections that all the Respondents raised to challenge the competence of the petition.

Justice Haruna noted that since the petition centered on the qualification or otherwise of President Tinubu to contest the presidential election that held on February 25, the APM, ought to have gone to court within 14 days after Tinubu was nominated by the All Progressives Congress, APC.

He held that since the cause of action bordered on a pre-election matter, the APM, lacked the locus standi to challenge Tinubu’s nomination.

More so, Justice Tsammani held that the Supreme Court had earlier decided that a political party does not have the right to challenge a nomination that was made by another political party.

He held that section 131 and 237 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, made provisions for the qualification or disqualification of candidates in an election.

The court noted that the main grouse of the APM was on the alleged invalid nomination of Tinubu’s running mate, Kashim Shettima.

“It is clear that the claim of qualification it non qualification of the the 3rd Respondent (Tinubu) centered on alleged invalid nomination of the 4th Respondent (Shettima).

“It is a pre-election matter,” Justice Tsammani held.

He further held that section 84(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, stipulated that political parties should not impose qualification criteria on a candidate, except as provided for in the constitution.

According to the court, sections 65, 66, 106, 107, 131, 137, 185 and 187 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, settled the issue of qualification and nomination of a candidate for an election.

It held that where an election has already been conducted and result declared, the qualification of a candidate could no longer be challenged on the basis of sections 131 and 137 of the Constitution.

The court held that since the APM failed to challenge President Tinubu’s nomination within the constitutionally allowed period, its case, therefore, had become statute barred.

It held that where the constitution has qualified a candidate for an election, no other law can disqualify such candidate except the constitution itself.

The court held that the issue of double nomination as canvassed by the APM, was not a legally cognizable ground for disqualification.

Besides, the court held that it found no reason why Mr. Ibrahim Masari was cited as the 5th Respondent in the petition since he would not in any way be affected by the outcome of the case.

Consequently, it struck out his name from the petition.

The APM had in its petition marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023, argued that the withdrawal of Mr. Masari who was initially nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the APC, invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy in view of Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The party argued that there was a gap of about three weeks between the period that Masari, who was listed as the 5th Respondent in the petition, expressed intention to withdraw, the actual withdrawal of his purported nomination, and the time Tinubu purportedly replaced him with Senator Kashim Shettima.

It further argued that Tinubu’s candidature had elapsed as at the time he nominated Shettima as Masari’s replacement.

According to the petitioner, as at the time Tinubu announced Shettima as the Vice Presidential candidate, “he was no longer in a position, constitutionally, to nominate a running mate since he had ceased to be a presidential candidate of the 2nd Respondent having regards to the provisions of section 142 of the 1999 Constitution”.

The APM contended that Masari’s initial nomination activated the joint ticket principle enshrined in the Constitution, stressing that his subsequent withdrawal invalidated the said joint ticket.

It, therefore, prayed the court to declare that Shettima was not qualified to contest as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the APC as at February 25 when the election was conducted by INEC having violated the provisions the of Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022.

“An order nullifying and voiding all the votes scored by Tinubu in the presidential election in view of his non-qualification as a candidate of the APC”.

As well as an order to set aside the Certificate of Return that was issued to the President by INEC, reliefs that were rejected by the court on Wednesday.

News

Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

Published

21 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

News

IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

Published

22 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

“As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.

News

I’m Being Impersonated – Goodluck Jonathan Disowns Social Media Account

Published

24 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday said he is being impersonated by fraudsters.

Jonathan alleged that a fraudulent Instagram handle has been impersonating him.

In a statement by his Media Aide,
Ikechukwu Eze, the former President insisted that he does not operate any Instagram handle.

The statement is titled ‘Beware of fake Instagram account impersonating H.E. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’.

“Our attention has been drawn to a fraudulent Instagram account operating under the handle goodluck_ebelejonathan, which is falsely impersonating former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“This impostor account has been deceitfully posting content, some copied from Dr. Jonathan’s Facebook page, while pretending to represent the former President.

“We wish to emphasise that Dr. Jonathan does not operate any Instagram account.

“The media and members of the public are strongly advised to disregard, avoid sharing, or promoting any content originating from this fake profile,” the statement read.