Supreme court has dismissed an appeal filed by the Former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba seeking to disqualify Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the presidential candidates of their political parties.
Gatekeepers News reports that in the judgment delivered on Thursday, the apex court panel led by Inyang Okoro dismissed the suit for being statute-barred.
Before the dismissal of the suit, the appellant opted to withdraw the case after the court pointed out that the appeal was filed outside the timeframe prescribed by law.
Nwajiuba and a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Rights for All International (RAI) had asked a federal high court in Abuja to void the processes that produced Tinubu and Abubakar as candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respectively.
According to them, both men bought the votes of delegates to enable them to become flag bearers of their parties.
However, a federal high court judge, Inyang Ekwo dismissed the suit, saying that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not have the locus standi (the right or capacity) to file the suit.
Ekwo had said, “It is only in this country that an association registered for charitable purposes will venture into partisan politics with such audacious sense of impunity.”
Dissatisfied with the judgment, the plaintiffs proceeded to the court of appeal.
The court of appeal also dismissed the suit for lacking merit.
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that Tinubu defeated Atiku, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) to win the February 25 presidential election.
