On Shettima, Tinubu, APC Are Right – PEPT

By Ayodele Oni

The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the Presidential Petition Election Tribunal on Wednesday said the Allied Peoples Movement’s petition challenging the qualification of Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was a pre-election matter.

The Allied Peoples Movement, (APM), petition seeking to disqualify Vice President Kashim Shettima has thus been rejected by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

The party had maintained that Tinubu’s selection of Kashim Shettima as his vice-presidential candidate for the election was an improper use of Tinubu’s sponsorship by the All Progressives Congress, (APC).

When Shettima accepted the nomination for vice president on July 14, the opposition party asserted that he was still the APC candidate for the Borno Central Senatorial District.

The PEPT, in its decision on the issue concluded that it was a pre-election matter and that it lacked jurisdiction to consider it.

The court also held that APM lacked locus standi to institute matters bothering on nomination and sponsorship of Shettima.

Reading his verdict, Tsammani said the matter ought to have been challenged before the conduct of the presidential election.

“The issue of qualification or disqualification is a constitutional one. The issue of disqualification or qualification is a pre-election matter, must be determined before the conduct of the election.

“This court has no jurisdiction to hear the matter and even if it does it is status-barred because it is a pre-election matter.”