The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s suit seeking the disqualification of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress.
A five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Adamu Jauro held that the main opposition PDP lacked the locus standi to institute the suit, noting that the PDP is not a member of the APC.
The PDP had claimed that Shettima’s nomination as Tinubu’s running mate was in breach of the provisions of sections 29(1), 33, 35, and 84(1)(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The main opposition party argued that Shettima’s nomination to contest the position of vice-president and Borno central senatorial seat — at the same time — contravened the law.
However, in dismissing the suit, the court slammed a fine of N2 million on the PDP for poke-nosing into the internal affairs of the APC, in the conduct of its primary elections and nomination of its candidates.
Justice Jauro agreed with Tinubu’s lawyer, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, that PDP acted as busy body and meddlesome interloper in the ways and manners it dabbled into APC’s affairs unjustly.
The Apex Court held that apart from the fact that PDP lacked requisite jurisdiction to institute the suit, the party also failed to provide scintilla of evidence that Shettima engaged in double nomination.
The claim of PDP on the alleged double nomination of the Vice President-elect was described as most unfortunate and a clear deliberate mischief to mislead the Court and the country.
The Supreme Court also agreed with Fagbemi that no matter the pains of PDP on how APC conducted its primary election and nominated its candidates, PDP must remain onlooker.
“It is abundantly clear that the Appellant (PDP) in the totality of its position in the instant case, is peeping and poke nosing into the affairs of another party as a busy body and meddlesome interloper,” he said.
The Court held that the action of PDP was painful because it used the social media to set a booby trap for the Supreme Court to blackmail it.
It said this is most unfortunate, unwarranted and uncalled for.
Details later…
