Court Dismisses Suit Seeking To Disqualify Tinubu, Obi From 2023 Elections
A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pursuing the disqualification of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022, the PDP had questioned the legality of the substitution of the running mates for the APC and the Labour Party.
It called on the court headed by Justice Donatus Okorowo to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to stop Tinubu and Obi from replacing their running mates with Kashim Shettima and Datti Baba-Ahmed respectively.
The party begged the court to declare Tinubu and Obi disqualified unless they contest alongside their previous running mates – Kabiru Masari and Doyin Okupe.
The PDP averred that the Electoral Act 2022 did not make provision for a “place holder” or temporary running mate.
Furthermore, the party asked the court to discern if “by the combined interpretation of Section 142(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sections 29(1), 31, 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, the first defendant (INEC) can validly accept any change or substitution of the 4th (Masari) and 7th (Okupe) defendants as running mates of the 3rd (APC) and 6th (Labour Party) defendants”.
