Headlines
Court dismissed the complaint in 2023 that sought to disqualify Tinubu from running for office
The court dismissed the complaint in 2023 that sought to disqualify Tinubu from running for office.
On Wednesday in Abuja, a Federal High Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Osigwe Momoh, an attorney located in Abuja.
Trying to get Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) party’s candidate for president, disqualified because the party chose a slate of candidates from the same religion for the February 25 election.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed decided on Wednesday that the person who brought the case to court didn’t have the right to do so.
The plaintiff didn’t have the right to challenge Tinubu and his running mate Kashim Shetima’s nomination because he hadn’t shown that he is an APC member or that he took part in the primary that made them the candidates for the party.
The judge ruled that the court doesn’t have the power to hear the case because the plaintiff doesn’t have the right to sue. He did this by upholding the preliminary objection made by the APC and Tinubu.
Momoh had claimed in a supporting affidavit that the APC owed a constitutional duty to preserve the ideals of social justice, equity, national cohesion, and unity in Nigeria by proposing a combined ticket for the presidential and vice presidential candidates.
In a society with many different religious affiliations, he said, the nomination of Muslim candidates for president and vice president is at odds with the idea of national cohesiveness, integration, and togetherness.
The complainant argued that the APC was not authorised to present candidates who shared the same faith because the party was forbidden by law from doing activities that could undermine social justice, equity, and unity.
APC, Tinubu, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the defendants, Momoh continued, “are under a constitutional duty to ensure that the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed and that no person or group of persons shall take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.”
The APC’s decision to nominate candidates for president and vice president who are members of the same religion is inimical to social justice, excludes others, and has the potential to divide the nation along religious lines.
On the grounds that the nomination of a Muslim-Muslim candidate is unlawful and goes against the spirit and letter of sections 14, 15, and 224 of the 1999 Constitution, Momoh asked the court, among other things, for an order nullifying the candidatures of APC and Tinubu from taking part in the presidential election.
Nation
