Ime Akpan
A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed a suit challenging the qualification of President Muhammadu Buhari to contest the 2019 general election.
The panel led by Justice Atinuke Akomolafe-Wilson ruled that the application was brought outside the specified time for pre-election matters.
The applicants, Messrs Kalu Kalu, Labaran Ismail and Hassy Kyari el-Kuris, had approached the court after a Federal High Court had dismissed their application on the grounds that it was brought outside the specified period of time.
They told the court that President Buhari was not educationally qualified to have stood for the presidential poll.
They also said the president’s required certificates were not attached to his form CF001 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for clearance to contest the presidential poll.
Delivering judgement, Justice Mohammed Idris said on behalf of the three-member panel that the court agreed with the high court that struck out the motion.
“We have decided to settle on the preliminary objection. To determine the issue, we have to pay serious attention to when the cause of action arose.
“I have no doubt in my mind that the cause of action arose on October 18 when the documents said to be false that is the curriculum vitae and affidavits were submitted to INEC in form CF001,” the court ruled.
It then added that based on section 285 (9) of the 1999 Constitution, the case was brought later than the stipulated period of 14 days when a pre-election matter ought to have been brought.
The court further held that even if the first part of the application had succeeded and the court agreed that the matter was not brought out of time, the stipulated period when such a pre-election matter ought to have been determined elapsed since May.
Consequently, the court ruled that it cannot accord itself any jurisdiction outside that given to it by the constitution.
Buhari’s educational qualification is also one of the grounds of the petition filed by Mr. Atiku Abubakar and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the presidential election tribunal.
