AA Wants Court To Nullify Tinubu’s Victory, Says INEC Uploaded Al’Mustapha’s Name
The Action Alliance (AA) has approached the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to seek the nullification of the victory of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.
A faction of the party which filed the lawsuit on Monday, based its argument on the premise that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to upload the name of its authentic presidential candidate, Solomon-David Okanigbuan, to its portal for the president poll.
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The party said it presented Okanigbuan to INEC as its candidate to contest the presidential election held on 25 February, but INEC “unlawfully excluded him from the election”, and uploaded the name of Hamza Al’Mustapha instead.
In the petition presented at the tribunal, the party said INEC’s exclusion of its candidate from the election rendered the exercise null and void and “invalid for non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.”
The party argued that despite the fact that Okanigbuan was validly chosen to represent in the presidential poll, INEC “unlawfully excluded him from the said election and rather imposed a certain Hamza Al-Mustapha” as its candidate “when the said Hamza Al-Mustapha is not a member of the AA.”
Citing provisions of the Nigerian constitution, the party noted that only a political party and not INEC is “authorised to nominate, sponsor and canvass for votes for candidates at any election.”
Part of the petition reads thus:
“The 1st respondent (INEC) deliberately refused to obey the order of the court that it should upload the names as ordered by court.”
It contended that it was wrong of INEC to have excluded Okanigbuan from the presidential election, adding that the action amounted to a disenfranchisement of its “numerous supporters who could not vote because their preferred candidate was not on the ballot.”
The AA therefore, urged the court to set aside Tinubu’s election and order INEC to conduct a fresh presidential poll.
