An appeal filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) seeking the disqualification of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja.
APM was seeking to disqualify Obi from the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.
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In the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1414/2022, the party had approached the court, contending that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ought not to have recognized Obi as a valid candidate for the presidential poll.
APM said this was in consideration of the time Obi defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the LP.
The party argued that the period of Obi’s defection for the purpose of contesting the presidential election was in violation of sections 77(2) and (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
They also argued that before Obi’s defection to the LP, the party had already sent a list of its registered members to the INEC.
According to the appellant, Obi lacked the right to be recognized as the LP presidential candidate because his name was not on the list of the party members that was submitted to INEC.
APM further urged the court to set aside the Federal High Court judgment which dismissed the suit it filed to challenge Obi’s candidacy.
In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, the appellate court said there was no merit in the appeal filed by APM.
This is one of the grounds the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu filed before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in response to Peter Obi’s Petition.