Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Court Of Appeal in the federal capital territory (FCT) has dismissed an appeal by a former minister of state for education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, seeking to disqualify Messrs Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respectively.
The appeal was based on a suit that a trial court dismissed in December 2022.
Nwajiuba and a non-governmental organisation, All International (RAI), had asked the federal high court in Abuja to void the processes that produced Tinubu and Abubakar as candidates of their respective parties, alleging that both men bribed their way to emerge standard bearers of their parties.
The judge dismissed the suit saying the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not have the right or capacity to file the suit.
“It is only in this country that an association registered for charitable purposes will venture into partisan politics with such audacious sense of impunity,” the judge had stated.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, Nwajiuba appealed the verdict through the NGO.
In a judgment delivered on Friday, the appellate court struck out the suit on the basis of a preliminary objection filed by counsel for the APC, Mr. Babatunde Ogala.
“That the suit at the lower court was not a pre-election matter as the appellant cannot be said to be a person covered by Section 285(14) a, b. c of the 1999 constitution being an NGO,” Ogala argued in the preliminary objection.
Upholding the objection, the appeal court panel ruled: “The appeal is lacking in merit and the appellant only sought to revive the dissolved NGO through the back door, the counsel to the Appellant who is also a trustee of the NGO should live with the same in sober reflections.”
“The appellant is not clothed with locus as can be gleaned from Section 285(14) a, b, and c of the 1999 constitution.
“The appellant is a busybody and a meddlesome interloper.”
The appellate court upheld the verdict of the trial court and awarded N100,000 against the appellants in the favour of Tinubu and Atiku.
