The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday dismissed a suit filed by a group seeking the disqualification of Sen. Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the 2023 general elections.
Justice Binta Nyako held that the plaintiff, the Incorporated Trustees of Kingdom Human Rights Foundation International, lacked the locus standi, which means legal right, to institute the case.
Justice Nyako held that the plaintiff, having not been a political party nor a member of APC, had no legal right to file the action and any conduct without legal right will be a nullity and it will be set aside.
The judge, who also described the suit as “an abuse of court process,” condemned the plaintiff for filing multiple suits with similar reliefs.
She said that Justice Inyang Ekwo had delivered a judgment in a similar suit on Dec. 15, 2022, and similarly dismissed the action.
Nyako observed that the earlier suit before Justice Ekwo and the current suit had the same reliefs though the names of the parties were slightly different.
“Consequently, the case is hereby dismissed for being an abuse of court process”, the judge ruled.
The group had sued the INEC chairman, the APC and Tinubu as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.
The plaintiff, in an originating motion on notice marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1960/22, sought an order of mandamus directing INEC to exercise its statutory power in accordance with Section 84(13) of the Electoral Act 2022 to immediately strike out Tinubu’s name from its final list of presidential candidates contesting the 2023 poll.
The group premised its action on the failure of the APC to comply with the mandatory provisions of Section 91(3) of Electoral Act 2022 which stipulates that a political party shall not receive any contribution of cash or kind exceeding N50 million without showing the source of the contribution to INEC, among others.
But Karma Fagbemi, Tinubu’s counsel told Justice Nyako that the plaintiff was a meddlesome interloper who was neither a political party nor a candidate in the 2023 poll.
He said the plaintiff lacked locus standi to institute the case, which challenged the political party’s decision and its internal affairs.
In a preliminary objection, Tinubu’s lead counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, prayed the court to dismiss the suit for being incompetent and described the suit as non-justiciable.
Fagbemi, giving a 14-ground argument said the subject matter of the suit was a challenge of his client’s eligibility in contesting for the 2023 presidential election on the ground that the APC failed and/or neglected to identify the source of the N100 million which he paid for his expression of interest and nomination form.