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The Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed another petition filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) seeking to upturn Bola Tinubu’s victory as Nigeria’s president-elect.
A five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani had on Monday dismissed a petition by the Action Alliance (AA) following the party’s withdrawal of its case against Mr Tinubu’s victory.
Tinubu who contested the 25 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), faced five separate petitions challenging his victory in the wake of his declaration by INEC as the winner of the poll.
The petitioners included political parties and their candidates including Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s Peter Obi. They lodged their complaints over the conduct of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
They urged the court to nullify Tinubu’s victory and order a fresh poll amongst other prayers.
But at Wednesday’s proceedings, APP’s lawyer, Obed Agu, informed the court that he filed a notice of withdrawal of the petition on 9 May.
“We are seeking an order of this court for leave to withdraw this petition filed on March 19.
“As well as an order striking out or dismissing the petition, same having been withdrawn,” the lawyer said.
Agu cited paragraph 29(1)(2) and (3) of the Schedule for Election Petitions as basis for the discontinuance of the petition.
He did not disclose reasons for the party’s U-turn.
The APP presidential candidate, Nnadi Osita, polled 12,839 votes, a far cry from the 8.8 million votes received by Tinubu.
Its petition filed on 19 March was anchored on, among other grounds, that Tinubu “corruptly induced” electoral officers at local government and state collation centres in “Kano, Kaduna, Imo, Rivers, Kebbi, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Kogi and Kwara states” with a view to alter the presidential election results in his favour.
The party alleged that “fictitious figures were ascribed to” Tinubu “thereby giving him substantial lead and advantage in the various states.”
In a short ruling, the court dismissed the petition.
“Having listened to all the parties, we are satisfied that there is no collusion. The petition having been withdrawn, it is hereby dismissed,” Mr Tsammani said.
Tinubu lauds withdrawal of petition
Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipenkun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), did not object to APP’s request to withdraw the petition.
“We want to commend them, with the hope that more will still come. My Lords, we are not asking for cost,” Olanipenkun said, eliciting laughter from other lawyers observers in the packed courtroom.
In the same vein, APC’s lawyer, Lateef Fagemi, a SAN, did not oppose the withdrawal of the petition.
Fagbemi urged other litigants like Atiku and Obi to tow the line of the AA and APP by withdrawing their complaints
“We commend the petitioners for doing the right thing. Let those who have not done so, do so immediately,” Mr Fagbemi said.
Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC’s lawyer did not challenge the withdrawal of the petition.
Wednesday’s withdrawal of the APP’s petition leaves Tinubu and his party with three cases to battle.
Apart from the more prominent cases filed by the PDP and the Labour Party, Tinubu grapples with the third case filed by the All Peoples Movement (APM).
APM’s petition asked the Presidential Election Petition Court to declare Atiku Abubakar, who came second in the poll, as the president-elect.
The APM whose presidential candidate, Chichi Ojei, polled 25,961 votes, argued that Tinubu was not properly sponsored by the APC by fielding Kashim Shettima as vice presidential candidate for the election.
Tinubu while submitting his presidential nomination form to INEC in June 2022, chose Ibrahim Masari, a politician from President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state Katsina, as a “placeholder” for the substantive vice-presidential candidate who would later be Mr Shettima.
The petitioner accused Mr Shettima of “double nominations” having been nominated by the APC as its senatorial candidate for Borno Central District and later vice-presidential flagbearer for the 25 February polls.
