Attempts by Chief Frank Igwebuike, the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), to remove the party from the petition filed by its Presidential candidate, Pastor Ameachi Habu, on Thursday, flopped as the Presidential election petition tribunal dismissed the application for lacking in merit. 

Ruling on the application brought by Morrison Omonu, counsel to Chief Igwebuike, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Mohammed Garba, held that the application was incompetent having being brought outside the pre-hearing session of the petition.

Daily Times reports that Habu and the PDM had jointly filed the petition challenging the February 23 general election that was won by President Muhammadu Buhari on the ground that the party and its candidate were excluded from the election. 

But, the party national chairman, Chief Igwebuike, midway during the pre-hearing session, opted out and sought to withdraw the petition citing national interest. However, the first petitioner, Habu, refused and vehemently opposed it. 

Delivering the lead ruling, Justice Garba noted that the pre-hearing in the PDM’s petition was concluded on June 27, 2019 and presentation of the pre-hearing session report fixed for July 10, while the application for withdrawal was filed on July 9. 

The court held that the application having been filed outside the pre-hearing session robbed the court the jurisdiction to entertain it. The court further held that failure of the applicant to obtain leave of court to file outside the pre-hearing session dealt a fatal blow to the application.