The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) case, which questions President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s eligibility for the election on February 25, 2023, was dismissed on Monday by the Presidential Election case Court (PEPC), despite efforts by President Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to halt it.
Tinubu attempted to utilize a Supreme Court decision from May 26, 2023, issued through his main attorney, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, to dismiss the APM’S case, but the motion was denied.
The complaint made by Tinubu was that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s lawsuit against the Apex Court resulted in a resolution of the one issue raised in the APM’s petition.
He attempted to have the Supreme Court judgment’s spirit and letter invoked in order to stop the hearing on the APM’s petition.
Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, the court’s presiding justice, disagreed with Tinubu and ruled that the party could not be excluded from a fair hearing.
Tinubu was urged by Justice Tsammani to reserve his objections to the petition’s hearing until the stage of the court’s proceedings known as the final address.
Similar objections to the petition made by the APC through its attorney, Charles Edosomwen SAN, were rejected by PEPC for the same reason.
Earlier, the Supreme Court decision sought to be utilized to dismiss the APM’s petition was communicated to the Court by the APM through its attorney, Mr. Gideon Ijiagbonya.
The attorney claimed that after reading the Supreme Court’s decision, he and his legal team came to the conclusion that the petition had merit and submitted a request for its hearing.
To get a crucial document from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to support his claim, he requested an extension until June 26.
In a succinct decision, Justice Tsammani rejected a week-long postponement and set Wednesday, June 21, for the petition’s hearing.
