Barely 24 hours to the release of the final list of flag-bearers of political parties in the 2023 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there are still some pending suits seeking to disqualify some candidates.
According to Tribune, there are pending suits before the Federal High Court, Abuja seeking the disqualification of the Presidential candidates of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
Already, three Abuja-based lawyers had asked the court to order INEC not to accept the nomination of Bola Tinubu,
The grouse of the lawyers amongst others is that Tinubu, Atiku and Obi were unlawfully nominated by their respective political parties.
Plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1004/2022 are Ataguba Aboje, Oghenovo Otemu and Ahmed Yusuf. Apart from INEC other defendants in the suit instituted on June 29 are; the Attorney General of the Federation ( AGF), APC PDP and the Labour Party as 1st to 5th respectively.
The plaintiffs are contending that APC, PDP and LP contravened provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022, in the conduct of the primary elections that produced their presidential candidates and that the three parties flouted the law by their failure to nominate their Vice Presidential candidates before the conduct of their primary elections as required by law.
Amongst issues they want the court to determine is whether, by the provisions of Sections 131, 141 and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, the office of the Vice President of Nigeria is an elective office subject to the same qualification as the office of the President of Nigeria.
The lawyers, among other reliefs, seek a declaration that APC, PDP and LP candidates for the office of the Vice President must participate together with their respective candidates for the election to the office of the President in their primary elections before they can be deemed validly elected.
They, therefore, applied for an order restraining INEC from recognizing Presidential candidates of APC, PDP and LP for failing to comply with the mandatory provisions of Sections 131 and 142 of the 1999 Constitution as well as Sections 29, 32, 84 and 152 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Similarly, an Abuja-based lawyer, Osigwe Momoh has dragged the APC and Tinubu to court for allegedly fielding presidential and vice-president candidates of the party from the same religion.
The lawyer in the suit seeks an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from publishing the name of the APC presidential candidate in the forthcoming coming elections for violation of the Nigerian Constitution.
The suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/1188/2022 claimed that the decision to pick the party presidential flag bearer and the running mate from the same religion (section) violates the principle and the spirit of the Nigeria Constitution.
Recently, one of the political parties in the country, the Action Alliance (AA), dragged INEC, APC, its presidential candidate and his vice, Senator Kashim before a Federal High Court over the alleged double nomination.
The party had, in its earlier suit pending before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, is seeking the disqualification of the APC from the 2023 presidential polls over an alleged act of perjury on the part of its presidential candidate, Tinubu.
But, a fresh suit filed on July 28, the AA is again, seeking the disqualification of the ruling party because it has nominated a candidate for more than one constituency in the 2023 general elections.
The act according to the party, in the fresh suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1256/2022 which has INEC, APC, Tinubu and Shettima as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants respectively, contravened Section 35 of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022.
It is specifically seeking, “A declaration that the nomination of the 4th defendant by the 3rd defendant as the Vice Presidential Candidate of the 2nd defendant is void arising from the express provision of Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022 in that the 4th defendant allowed himself to be nominated in more than one constituency for the 2023 elections.
“A perpetual injunction restraining the 3rd and 4th defendants from holding out themselves as Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates contesting the 2023 Presidential election on the platform of the 2nd defendant”, as well as an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from listing the names of Tinubu and Shettima as Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates in the final list of candidates in the said election.
While the case is yet to be heard, a civil society group, the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), demanding the arrest and prosecution of the APC Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima over alleged double nominations for the 2023 general election.
Shettima, who is to pair with Tinubu in the next year's presidential election on the APC platform was alleged to have been nominated twice by APC for two different constituencies at the same time in gross breach of the Electoral Act 2022.
According to the petition, Shettima signed both the INEC form EC9 on oath as the APC candidate for Borno Central Senatorial District of Borno State for the 2023 general elections and at the same time went ahead to sign another INEC form EC9 as Vice Presidential candidate of the APC, an action believed to have contravened the law.
The signing of two nomination forms by Shetima for two different constituencies is said to have specifically breached sections 115(d) and (k) of the Electoral Act 2022 and attracts two years imprisonment by the court upon a conviction.
Rattled by an order of a trial court in Abuja in a suit seeking to scuttle its May 28, 2022, presidential primary, the PDP has shifted the battle to the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
The Commissioner of Trade and Investment in Abia State, Hon. Cosmos Ndukwe had dragged the party and Chairman of its Primary Election Planning Committee and National Secretary of the party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu and others to Court praying that the primary election is stopped.
His grouse was premised on the alleged refusal of PDP to zone its presidential ticket for the 2023 presidential election to the South East geopolitical zone and his disqualification from participating in the presidential primary election on anti-party activity.
On April 28, Justice Donatus Okorowo in a ruling on the ex-parte application seeking to stop the primary elections of the party refused to grant the request of the plaintiff who was a former Deputy Speaker in the Abia State House of Assembly.
But, dissatisfied with the High Court’s decision, the Primary Election Planning Committee Chairman, Senator Samuel Anyanwu has filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal in Abuja praying that the order of Justice Okorowo be set aside on the ground that the Judge erred in law by denying him a fair hearing in breach of section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution.
Also, the Action Alliance has asked the court to stop INEC from including the name of the APC on the ballot for the 2023 Presidential election.
The party equally asked the court for another order restraining the electoral umpire from accepting the name of Senator Bola Tinubu as the candidate of the APC in the forthcoming presidential election.
The plaintiff in the Writ of Summon marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/954/2022, predicated its request on the claim that both the APC and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu are not qualified to participate in the 2023 presidential election on alleged forgery committed by Tinubu in 1999.
The plaintiff claimed that Tinubu forged the university of Chicago certificate he submitted in 1999 in aid of his qualification for the 1999 governorship election in Lagos State, which was won by Tinubu.
The suit has INEC, APC and Tinubu as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.
In a 16-paragraph statement on oath, the plaintiff claimed that Tinubu had provided false information and attached forged documents in his form CF 001, which he submitted to INEC in 1999 in aid of his qualification for the governorship poll and Tinubuubu’s that he possesses BSc degrees in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Chicago and Chicago State University in 1976 and 1979 respectively were false.
The party, therefore, prayed the court to declare that the 3rd defendant’s claim that he attended Government College, Ibadan and the University of Chicago on his INEC Form CF 001 in 1999 which he presented to INEC is false.
Meanwhile, the absence of Mr Wilfred Okoi, counsel to Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike in a suit challenging the validity of the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar as PDP flag bearer stalled the hearing in the suit last week.
Okoi was at the Federal High Court early in the day and was said to have suddenly developed sickness and had to hurriedly leave the courtroom.
Consequent to this, the trial Judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed fixed October 7 for the hearing of the suit.
A PDP chieftain, Newgent Ekamon, who instituted the suit alongside Wik had sued PDP, its presidential candidate, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal over the conduct of the presidential primary of the party held in Abuja on May 28 and May 29, 2022.
In the originating summons, Wike and his co-applicant asked the court to determine eight issues including whether the purported transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku by the PDP was illegal and void.
The plaintiffs asked the court to determine if Tambuwal lost his claim to votes the moment he stepped down for Atiku and asked the court to determine whether Tambuwal “having stepped down during the primaries ought to lose his votes.” - Tribune.
