Tension In APC Over Cancellation Of 2023 Presidential Election

Tension In APC Over Cancellation Of 2023 Presidential Election

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettim, have urged the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal not to nullify the February 25 presidential poll.

Tinubu and Shettima said the tribunal should not cancel the presidential election over the controversy surrounding the 25 percent in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

This was as they urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition of the Labour Party, LP, and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Their appeal was contained in a final address by their lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun.

In the address, Olanipekun described the arguments and testimonies of witnesses presented by the challengers as “frivolous, bogus and based on hearsay.”

He urged the court to dismiss the petition because it totally lacked merit and substance.

He stressed that the “remote” contention of the petitioners that Tinubu and Shettima’s election should be cancelled for not scoring 25 percent or one-quarter of the votes recorded in the FCT was not backed by any fact known to the law as the use of “and” in the constitution is conjunctive and not disjunctive.

“The appellant woefully failed to realise that judges do not act like the oracles of life, which is often engaged in crystal gazing and thereafter would proclaim a new Oba in succession to a deceased Oba.

“Judges cannot perform miracles in the handling of civil claims, and at least of all manufacture evidence for the purpose of assisting a plaintiff win his case,” he said.