By Itopa Lawal

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday struck out the petition of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

In a ruling on the objections against the petition made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shetima and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani held that the petition lacked merit and competence for it to be determined.

Among others, Tsammani said the disqualification issue on which the petition was predicated was a pre-election matter that ought to have been taken to a Federal High Court and not a Tribunal.

Being a pre-election matter, the Tribunal said that it has no jurisdiction to dabble into the issue of disqualification to question the nomination and declaration of Tinubu, Shetima and APC victory at the presidential election.

He also held that the petition was statute-barred, having been filed outside the period allowed by law.

He further held that the APM lacked the locus standi to institute the petition because its presidential candidate, as a necessary person who stood for the presidential election along with Tinubu, was not part of the petition.

APM’s grouse was that Shetima engaged in double nominations for a Senatorial election in Borno and later as a running mate to Tinubu.

It prayed that the Tribunal axe both Tinubu and Shetima for allegedly violating sections 131 and 137 of the 1999 Constitution in the ways and manners one Kabiru Masari opted out as Tinubu’s running mate and Shetima brought in.