The Supreme Court has upheld Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s right to run in the February 25 presidential election.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Friday that an appeal brought by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to question the validity of Tinubu’s nomination lacked merit.
The PDP sought Tinubu’s disqualification in the SC/CV/501/2023 appeal on the grounds that the Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, permitted himself to be nominated for more than one seat ahead of the 2023 general election.
It informed the court that Shettima was nominated twice, once for the Borno Central Senatorial seat and once for the Vice Presidential position.
The PDP claimed that Shettima’s dual nomination violated Sections 29(1), 33, 35, and 84(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act of 2022, as amended.
As a result, in addition to asking the court to nullify Tinubu and Shettima’s candidatures, the appellant also requested that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, remove their names from the list of nominated or sponsored candidates eligible to run in the presidential election.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, in a landmark decision issued by Justice Adamu Jauro, ruled that the PDP lacked locus standi (legal standing) to meddle in the affairs of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which nominated both Tinubu and Shettima for the presidential election.
The apex court upheld the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court in Abuja, which earlier dismissed PDP’s case.
It agreed with the respondents that Section 285 (14) (c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2022, did not confer the locus standi (legal right) to challenge the candidature of Shettima on the ground of double nomination.
The apex court held that Section 84 of the Electoral Act only empowered an aspirant who participated in the primary election of a political party to challenge the nomination of a candidate by the party.
It held that the PDP failed to establish the injury it suffered as a result of the nomination by the APC, stressing that the law does not permit a political party to dabble in the domestic affairs of another political party.
The Supreme Court said the PDP was unable to prove that its civil rights and obligations were in danger of being infringed upon.
It described the appeal as the action of “a nosy busybody and a meddlesome interloper that is peeping into the affairs of its neighbour.”
More so, the apex court berated the PDP for filing the appeal, which it said was frivolous and capable of exposing the judiciary to public ridicule.
The Supreme Court ruled that the evidence presented to it demonstrated that Shettima withdrew as the APC’s candidate in the Borno senatorial election on July 6, 2022.
“From any perspective, this appeal is frivolous and doomed to fail.”
“It has been a waste of precious judicial time from the trial court to this court.”
“The instant appeal was unnecessary, and counsel should do better in the future to advise their client against filing this type of suit,” Justice Jauro stated.
While dismissing the appeal, the Supreme Court approved the N2 million in damages granted to the respondents against the PDP.
