The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) according to the 2022 Electoral Act has declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidential candidacy of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) illegal and null and void.
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, made this claim at a press conference in Abuja on Saturday.
Ologunagba emphasized that the recent court ruling that invalidated the APC’s candidate in the recently concluded Osun State governorship election, Adgeboyega Oyetola, could be applied to Tinubu’s candidacy.
He claimed that the role of the APC Caretaker Committee, Mai Mala Buni, who also served as the state governor of Zamfara State, was unconstitutional under Section 183 of the Electoral Act.
Ologunagba said “Mai Mala Bala was assumed to be Chairman of the APC and the laws say that if you are an executive governor you cannot double as Chairman. This has led the court to nullify the candidacy of the Governor of Osun State, Oyetola.
“The same Mai Mala Buni was the caretaker chairman that sponsored the nomination of Tinubu. We are saying that if the process that sponsored the nomination of the presidential candidate of the APC was illegal, then the nomination of Bola Tinubu is illegal, null and void.”
When asked if the PDP would go to a court of competent jurisdiction to establish his claim, he stated that the party had previously advised the APC on the matter and had studied the recent Oyetola case.
‘The PDP will not announce whether we are going to court,’ Ologunagba said. ‘You’ll be notified if we need to go to court.’
Given the ongoing differences between the Wike and Ayu camps, he spoke about the PDP’s unity.
“You mistake Atiku to be PDP. Atiku is a product of PDP. I understand that Nigerians are legitimately concerned for the party but reconciliation is not a 100m dash, it is a marathon.”
Ologunagba stated that Atiku’s efforts to reintegrate Wike into the party demonstrated to Nigerians that Atiku was a unifier.
“Nigerians have accepted Atiku as a unifier, The multiple actions of the Board of Trustees, National Working Committee, and Atiku have given Nigerians reasons to trust us to bring all party members together.
“You will begin to see more actions. The NWC and the BoT are working. We are united, you saw that play out at the book launch of Solomon Lar,” he added.
On the PDP’s readiness, he stated, “We are ready and we are compliant with the rules. Some other parties are playing catch up.
‘We signed the peace accord, and Atiku was there. A party candidate did not show up. We don’t want a President by proxy.”
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