The Kwara State Local Govern-ment Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Ilorin on Monday struck out the petition filed by the chairmanship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Offa Local Government re-run election, Prince Saheed Popoola, challenging the victory of Prince AbdulWaheed Segun Olanipekun of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Delivering a ruling on the petition, tribunal's chairman, Chief Magistrate Ibrahim Mohammed, said the petitioners lacked the locus standi to present the petition before the tribunal.

Mohammed ruled that the inclusion of APC in the petition was abnormal as it was not a party in the annulled election as delivered by the High Court of Justice, Ilorin and the appellate court.

The High Court, according to the tribunal's chairman had ordered a rerun for the conduct of the election in accordance with the principle of law.

The tribunal also ruled that the name of the chairman of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) Dr. Uthman Ajidagba be struck out in the petition as he acted in accordance with his official capacity and not as a single personality for the conduct of the election.

The rerun election which was conducted on August 31, 2013, amidst protest by the APC, alleging electoral heist by the PDP, was initially ordered in 2012 between PDP and the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

But when the rerun was to be conducted, ACN had ceased to exist as a political party having merged with other parties to form APC.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Dayo Akinlaja, had in a chat with Daily Trust described the scenario as "novel", saying the issue was whether APC could be surrogated with ACN.

He added, "Unfortunately, the Electoral Act does not make such a provision because it does not say that once the merger of a party is approved, the emergent party would take the previous rights and obligations. There is no such express provision. So when you take the provision of the Electoral Act holistically, it appears clear to me that it is only the parties that contested that election ab initio that can take part in a rerun".