Observers: The Real Reasons AA, APP, and APM Withdrew Their Cases Against Tinubu

Following eyebrows being raised by the sudden and dramatic withdrawal of their cases from the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal by three political parties, two law­yers, Barrister Alaowei Cleric, and Barrister Emeka Iheonu, have said that there was noth­ing wrong by the action of the political parties.  Continue Reading>>>

It would be recalled that the tribunal granted the applica­tion of the three political par­ties, the Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA) and the Allied Peoples Move­ment (APM), to withdraw their cases asking that the election of Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Con­gress (APC), be quashed.

Speaking with Sunday Inde­pendent on the issue, Barrister Alaowei Ebikonbowei Cleric, a human rights lawyer and Chairman, Board of Trust­ees (BoT), Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC), said there is nothing wrong for the par­ties to withdraw their cases if they discover that they cannot prove their cases.  Continue Reading>>>

Cleric stated: “Petitioners withdrawing cases at Presiden­tial Election Petition Tribunal may mean that they cannot establish their cases beyond reasonable doubt to compel the tribunal to upturn to the election.

He also argued that the three parties might have seen reasons to work with the in­coming government in order to move the country forward.

“I think, whatever may be their reasons, it must be for the betterment of the country,” he reasoned.

On his own, Barrister Iheonu, a member of the Af­rican Bar Association (ABA), said: “The parties have the right to withdraw cases they have instituted without even offering any explanation.

“I see nothing wrong with the withdrawals. It is either they have somehow settled with the parties they sued, or they have realised that they do not have enough evidence against the said parties.”

Commenting, however, Bishop Funso Awe, a cleric cum politician, said that pol­iticians and their party lead­ers always have some tricks in their bags, especially after major elections like the 2023 general elections.

Bishop Awe, the 2019 gover­norship candidate of the Na­tional Conscience Party (NCP) and the Bishop of the Ortho­dox Anglican Church, Lagos Mainland Diocese, maintained that the proverbial Nigerian factor could be raising its ugly head here.

While noting that the po­litical parties have the right to withdraw their cases from the tribunal, he stressed, “The political parties and the candi­dates have realised that they can continue to make demands on the winners of the elections by going to court.

“But, the action is a means of telling the winners to settle them. One of the parties in the tribunal was even saying that Atiku should be declared win­ner of the election, when Atiku was not its candidate.

“I think if a party is not the first or second runners-up in an election, it should not be allowed to file a case after an election.”

However, it was noted that Action Alliance, one of the po­litical parties that withdrew its case, could have done so due to some issues not unconnected with reported factionalisation and the issue of which of the leaders was in the proper posi­tion to file such a case.