2023: Respite For Tinubu As Court Dismisses Suit Challenging His Candidacy

By Akinwale Kasali

The All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola is standing solid, as a Federal High Court Sitting in Abuja dismissed a suit by a Right Advocate and APC stalwart, Ngozika Ihuoma.

She had dragged Tinubu alongside the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to Court on June 9 for allegedly violating extant Electoral Laws few days after the former Lagos State Governor won the APC Presidential Primary.

In the suit marked FHC/ ABJ/CS/854/2022, the two Presidential Candidates were sued alongside their parties, Independent National Electoral Commission and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The petitioner, Ihuoma, had sought for six reliefs, which included INEC barring Tinubu from contesting the 2023 presidential election.

Babatunde Ogala (SAN)  who is the defense Counsel for the APC filed a counter affidavit in opposition to the originating summons and a notice of preliminary objection.

In dismissing the case, Justice Fadima Muritala described the plaintiff as a “meddlesome interloper having no locus standi to institute the suit.”

He, therefore, dismissed the case for being speculative after APC’s counsel, Julius Ishola Esq, from Babatunde Ogala had urged the court to dismiss it with heavy cost for wasting judicial time.

It was the fourth case to be dismissed by the court in recent times.

Reacting in a statement he issued, the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, said that the counter affidavit challenged Ihuoma’s locus standi and grounds for the action.

He said, “The counter affidavit also punctured Ihuoma’s case as academic, theoretical and an abuse of court process. The court on Monday upheld the defense counsel’s objections and struck out the case.

“In the last couple of weeks, the courts have dismissed several cases brought against Asiwaju Tinubu by opposition elements, including Action Alliance, for being frivolous, lacking in merit and abuse of court processes.”