The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has joined the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Bola Tinubu’s election victory.
On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced Tinubu as the victor of the presidential election held on February 25. Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the LP, and the APM were not pleased with this outcome.
As a result, Tinubu’s victory was contested before the Presidential Election Petition Court, which rendered a decision on September 6 dismissing the petitions of the PDP, LP, and APM for lack of substance.
The APM has now joined the LP and PDP to argue that the September 6 decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal upholding Mr. Tinubu as having rightfully won the election was flawed because the court only dismissed their petition on the grounds of double nomination instead of looking at the issue from the perspective that Mr. Tinubu failed to choose a running mate within the 14-day window stipulated by law following the withdrawal of placeholder Kabiru Masari.
By filing the appeal, the APM is asking the Supreme Court to accept it and rule that Tinubu was ineligible to run for president of the APC on February 25 due to violations of Section 142 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) at the time the election was held.
The plaintiff argued that the term “to be validly elected” covered the condition of “being qualified to contest the election” and that it was sufficiently inclusive to cover issues of qualification and disqualification as required by law.
In addition, the party requested that the Supreme Court rule that the PEPC focused on technical concerns that only benefited Tinubu and Shettima, the third and fourth respondents in the appeal, rather than focusing on whether the third and fourth respondents were legitimately elected.