During Tuesday’s proceedings, counsel for Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, informed the court of a recent judgement of the Supreme Court, which, according to him, appears to have resolved the same issue the Allied Peoples Movement has brought before the court.
He referenced the Supreme Court’s decision of Friday, May 26, that dismissed the suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, which prayed to the court to nullify the ticket that produced the president and his vice president on grounds of double nomination.
Olanipekun sought to know if the decision of the apex court does not affect the case of the APM, which is also challenging the outcome of the election on the grounds of using a placeholder, Kabir Masari, for Shettima.
“We are aware that the Supreme Court gave a decision on this same matter in the yet-to-be-reported judgement SC/CV/501/20223 and the parties involved were Peoples Democratic Party versus INEC and three others, where the apex court resolved all the issues.
“We promise within the next two days that the certified true copies of the judgement of the Supreme Court will be made available.
“And we will also discuss with the petitioners whether, in light of the decision of the Supreme Court, there will still be the need to continue with this petition.”
Responding, counsel for the APM, Shehu Abubakar, however, requested a short time to enable the petitioners to avail themselves of the judgement to aid their decision.
He said, “Based on the submission of the learned silk, we shall be praying to adjourn the hearing of this petition to enable us to apply to the Supreme Court for the copy of the judgement referred to, to enable us to examine the same and know the effect it has on this petition.”
The court granted his request and adjourned APM’s hearing to June 2nd.
The Supreme Court had last Friday dismissed the appeal by the PDP seeking the disqualification of Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election over the alleged double nomination of his Shettima.
The apex court thus affirmed that the duo of the All Progressives Congress were eligible to contest the presidential election held on February 25.
