The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu has submitted that those calling for the disqualification of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the party’s presidential candidate are simply being mischievous.
Sen. Adamu maintained that Tinubu emerged from a properly conducted party primary election and no step taken by the APC falls outside the provisions of the law, hence there is absolutely no basis to justify calls for Tinubu to be disqualified.
He made the submission on Sunday during his interview appearance on Arise TV.
He spoke against the backdrop of the court case instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling for the disqualification of Tinubu over the replacement of his running mate after initially submitting a name in ‘placeholder’ capacity.
It will be recalled that in the bid to stop the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu and Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi from selecting Kashim Shettima and Datti Baba-Ahmed as their running mates, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) filed a lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The PDP asked the court to rule that Tinubu and Obi cannot run for office unless they do so with their respective former running mates, Kabiru Masari and Doyin Okupe respectively.
In the originating summons with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022, the PDP is seeking an order barring the Independent National Electoral Commission from replacing the running mates of Tinubu and Obi.
The first to seventh respondents in the case are INEC, APC, Tinubu, Masari, Labour Party, Obi, and Okupe.
However, Adamu in his reaction on Sunday said the case is a futile attempt to stop the party as the APC operated fully within the provisions of the electoral law guiding such activities.
He added that as the matter is already in court, he wouldn’t want to speak too much on it to avoid subjudice.
In his words, “The laws of this land are absolutely clear. No matter how mischievous any of us wants to be, there is the law. As far as the APC is concerned, we had a convention where a candidate was chosen for an election.
“Within the legal space available to us and to give us room to assess the candidates that will be desirable for our running mate or vice presidential candidate, we had to submit a name that will hold the position for our nomination. The laws of INEC do allow for this. If it doesn’t, we won’t contemplate.
“It is within the confine and dictates of our electoral laws in this country. It is not something to lose sleep over. We now have a running mate that we have submitted to the INEC. Simple! If you say the PDP has gone to court, let the court decide on the case. It is subjudice anyway.
“For your information, I am a lawyer by my calling. Once a case is in court, it is subjudice. I don’t want to comment on it and I won’t do it beyond what I have just told you now.”
