A FEDERAL High Court in Abuja has refused to disqualify the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, from contesting and participating in the 2023 elections.
The court today held that a suit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lodged against the two presidential candidates lacked merit and deserved to be dismissed.
The PDP had approached the court, accusing both Obi and Tinubu of acting in breach of the Electoral Act.
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The party told the court that contrary to the provisions of the electoral law, Obi and Tinubu failed to nominate their running mates in due time.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022, the plaintiff contended that the Electoral Act, 2022 did not provide a “place holder” or temporary running mate.
It argued that the subsequent resignation, withdrawal or substitution of Okupe and Masari by both the LP and the APC were illegal and unconstitutional.
The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Donatus Okorowo, held that the suit was not only incompetent, it amounted to gross abuse of the judicial process.
It also held that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain an incompetent suit and, accordingly, dismissed it.
The ICIR reports that the PDP had asked an Abuja Federal High Court to compel INEC to disqualify Tinubu and Obi from the 2023 presidential election for replacing their running mates.
PDP argued that the two men were not eligible to participate in the election unless they did so with their initial running mates, Doyin Okupe and Kabiru Masari.
Defendants in the suit included Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), LP, APC, Obi, Tinubu, Okupe and Masari.
A reporter with the ICIR
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