By Deborah Onyofufeke, Abuja
The Supreme Court, on Friday, gave its approval for the inauguration of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his vice-president elect, Kashim Shettima, with a dismissal of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, suit seeking to disqualify the duo from the 2023 presidential election.
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panelon Friday, held that the president elect and his vice are eligible to contest for the February 25 2023 elections and that the PDP case lacked merit
The court held that PDP’S Suit which seemed the disqualification of Tinubu and Shetima on the ground of alleged double nomination by Shetima was grossly lacking in merit and dismissed it.
Justice Adamu Jauro who delivered the lead judgment slammed a fine of N2M on PDP for poke nosing into the internal affairs of the All Progressives Congress in the conduct of its primary elections and nomination of its candidates.
Justice agreed with Tinubu’s lawyer, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN that PDP acted as busy body and meddlesome interloper in the ways and manners it dabbled into APC’S affairs unjustly.
The Apex Court held that apart from the fact that PDP lacked requisite jurisdiction to institute the suit, the party also failed to provide scintilla of evidence that Shetima engaged in double nomination.
The claim of PDP’ on the alleged double nomination of the Vice President-elect was described as most unfortunate and a clear deliberate mischief to mislead the Court and the country.
The Supreme Court also agreed with lawyer Fagbemi SAN that no matter the pains of PDP on how APC conducted it’s primary election and nominated its candidates, PDP must remain onlooker.
“It is abundantly clear that the Appellant (PDP) in the totality of its position in the instant case, is peeping and poke nosing into the affairs of another party as a busy body and meddlesome interloper”
The Court held that the action of PDP was painful because it used the social media to set a booby trap for the Supreme Court to blackmail it. This is most unfortunate, unwarranted and uncalled for.
PDP had in an appeal marked: SC/CV/501/2023, sought Tinubu’s disqualification on the premise that the Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, allowed himself to be nominated for more than one constituency, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
It told the court that Shettima was nominated twice, both for the Borno Central Senatorial seat and for the Vice Presidential position.
READ ALSO: Inauguration: FG declares May 29 public holiday
PDP argued that Shettima’s dual nomination, was in gross breach of the provisions of Sections 29(1), 33, 35 and 84(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act, 2022, as amended.
Consequently, aside from praying the court to nullify Tinubu and Shettima’s candidacy, the Appellant equally applied for an order to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to expunge their names from the list of nominated or sponsored candidates that were eligible to contest the presidential poll.
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 that 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 domestic affair 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.
The apex court held that the evidence before it showed that Shettima duly withdrew as the candidate of the APC in the Borno senatorial election, on July 6, 2022.
