1. Double nomination falls under Non- qualification of a candidate under section 134 (a) of Electoral Act, 2022 and, is also one of the grounds you can challenge an election through Election Petition.
2. Non qualification or double nomination of a candidate can be challenged by a person within the Party that nominated the candidate and also a person who is from another political party or another political party itself.
3. Double nomination can be challenged before or after Election ( if it is before Election, we call it “pre Election matter” and if it after the Election we call it “post Election matter”).
4. If you are challenging double nomination or non-qualification of a candidate before the election (Pre Election matter) then, you have to be a member of the political party that nominated the candidate you are challenging. An external person cannot challenge it before the election because it is at that time an internal affair of the party that nominated him.
5. But if it is after Election, any other candidate from another political party or another political party itself can now challenge it through Election Petition under non- qualification. At this time, it is called non- qualification of such candidate. You incorporate it in your Election Petition. That is what LP did.
Shettima’s non- qualification will still be raised again in the Supreme Court by Peter Obi and Supreme will still have to determine it again in Peter Obi’s Petition. Shettima has not gone scot free. The double nomination will still rear its ugly head again.
But PDP did not wait for the election to come before they challenged the double nomination, that is why Supreme Court threw their case out because at that time, it was an internal affairs of APC; it did not concern PDP or any other party at that time. It is after the election that other candidates or other political parties can competently challenge it which is what Labour Party did. Peter Obi and his team are Election Petition gurus!
~ J. A. Ekwe & Co.
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