Nigeria: Presidential Election Petition Court Dismisses First Petition Filed Against Tinubu's Victory

APC/Twitter
President-Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (file photo).
8 May 2023
Premium Times (Abuja)
By Ameh Ejekwonyilo

The AA's petition is one of the five petitions filed at the Presidential Election Petition Court against Mr Tinubu's victory.

The Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja on Monday dismissed one of the five petitions challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu in the 25 February poll.

A five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani dismissed the case after the petitioner's lawyer announced its withdrawal.

It was the first among the five petitions received by the court to be called for hearing.

The court earlier held its inaugural sitting during which it assured all litigants that it would do justice to all parties to the case pending before it.

Lawyers, in response, gave their commitment to cooperate with the court.

The panel members went on a short break after the ceremonial opening of the court and retuned to begin hearing AA's case.

A confusion about the legal representative of the party ensued when the party's case was called.

Oba Maduabuchi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, first announced appearance for the AA party. Another lawyer, Malachi Umuebe, also announced appearance for the party.

Mr Maduabuchi insisted that he was the party's lawyer.

The court discountenanced Mr Umuebe since he was not the one who filed the petition before the court.

Shortly after the court recognised Mr Maduabuchi, the lawyer announced the withdrawal of the case.

The respondents' lawyers - Wole Olanipekun, SAN, representing Mr Tinubu, and Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said they had no objection against the application for the withdrawal of the petition.

The court then dismissed the petition.

But the Action Alliance has urged the court to nullify the polls owing to alleged refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the name of its actual presidential candidate - Solomon-David Okanigbuan - to its portal for the February poll.

The National Chairman of Action Alliance, Adekunle Omo-Aje, had said in January that Hamza Al-Mustapha, recognised by INEC was not the authentic presidential candidate of the party.

He spoke against the background of the leadership tussle rocking his party, which gave rise to the emergence of two presidential candidates.

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