2023: Atiku, Tinubu, Obi on verge of disqualification as court gets serious suit

2023: Atiku, Tinubu, Obi on verge of disqualification as court gets serious suit

  • The presidential candidates of the PDP, APC, and LP, Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu, and Peter Obi, respectively will have to answer some questions in court bordering on their running mates
  • A suit has been filed at the Federal High Court against the trio for not picking their running mates before the presidential primaries, which violates the Electoral Act, 2022
  • What is even more serious is that the plaintiffs have called on the court to issue an order for INEC not to recognise the election of Atiku, Tinubu, and Obi

Abuja - The fact that Atiku Abubakar, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Peter Obi did not pick their running mates before presidential primaries in their various parties may cost them a lot.

Already, three lawyers, Ataguba Aboje, Oghenovo Otemu, and Ahmed Yusuf, have filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking the disqualification of the above-named candidates for the 2023 presidential election, The Cable reports.

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Obi, Atiku, Tinubu
The plaintiffs called on the court to issue an order restraining INEC from recognising the trio (Photo: @labourpartyng, @atiku, @tsg2023)
Source: Twitter

In the suit, the plaintiffs argued that the failure of Atiku, Tinubu, and Obi to choose their deputies before the primaries contravenes sections of the Nigerian constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022.

In the suit that mentions INEC, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), APC, PDP, and Labour Party (LP) as defendants, the lawyers cited section 142 of the constitution which makes provisions on qualifications for a candidate to be nominated as vice-president.

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What section 142 of the constitution says

The section reads:

“In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Chapter relate, a candidate for an election to the office of President shall not be deemed to be validly nominated unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political party for his running for the office of President, who is to occupy the office of Vice-President and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Vice-President if the candidate for an election to the office of President who nominated him as such associate is duly elected as President in accordance with the provisions aforesaid.

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“The provisions of this part of this chapter relating to qualification for election, tenure of office, disqualification, declaration of assets and liabilities, and oaths of president shall apply in relation to the office of vice-president as if references to the president were references to vice-president.”

Disqualify Atiku, Tinubu and Obi

Aboje, Otemu, and Yusuf are calling on the court for a declaration that the office of the vice-president is an elective office subject to the same qualification as the office of the president.

The lawyers also want the court to declare invalid the election of Atiku, Tinubu, and Obi, who at the point of the primaries had no running mates.

Consequently, they called on the court for an order restraining the electoral commission from recognising the flagbearers on the grounds that they failed to adhere to the provisions of law.

At the moment, no date has been fixed for the hearing by the court.

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Meanwhile, supporters of Tinubu had kicked against calls from Action Alliance (AA) to the court to prevail over the INEC in delisting the former Lagos governor.

In a suit filed before the court, the AA's lawyer, Upkai Ukairo, alleged that the APC and its flagbearer are not qualified to participate in the 2023 presidential election on alleged forgery committed by Tinubu in 1999.

Referring to Tinubu, part of the suit claimed:

“...the third defendant is a person who is not qualified for election to the office of President of Nigeria on the grounds of alleged forgery..."

Source: Legit.ng

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