A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the candidacy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ngozika Ihuoma, a rights advocate and APC stalwart, had dragged Tinubu and the Peoples Democratic Party’s 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.
The two presidential candidates were sued alongside their parties, Independent National Electoral Commission and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, in the suit marked FHC/ ABJ/CS/854/2022,
Ihuoma sought for six reliefs, including INEC barring Tinubu from contesting the 2023 presidential election.
Law office of Babatunde Ogala & Co on behalf of the APC, in defense of the suit, filed a counter affidavit in opposition to the originating summons and a notice of preliminary objection.
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The case was however dismissed by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday.
Justice Fadima Muritala described the plaintiff as a “meddlesome interloper having no locus standi to institute the suit.”
The case was therefore dismissed 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.
A statement issued by the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed this hours after the ruling
He also disclosed that the counter affidavit challenged Ihuoma’s locus standi and grounds for the action.
Onanuga 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.”
