The Abuja Federal High Court, Abuja, Monday, dismissed a suit filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi, the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) respectively.
Justice Donatus Okorowo, in a judgment, held that the suit was unknown to law and hence, described it as “an abuse of court process.”
Okorowo said the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter and the suit did not disclose any reasonable cause of action against the respondents.
He said “When a court finds out that a suit is an abuse of court process, the court has the right to dismiss it,”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the PDP had, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022 sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC, Tinubu, Kabiru Masari, LP, Obi and Doyin Okupe respectively as 1st to 8th respondents respectively
The PDP had asked the court to compel INEC to prevent Tinubu and Obi from replacing their running mates with Sen. Kashim Shettima and Sen. Datti Baba-Ahmed respectively.
The PDP is also asking the court to declare that Tinubu and Obi be disqualified unless they contest alongside their previous running mates – Masari and Okupe respectively.
In the originating summons with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022, the PDP sought an order barring the INEC from replacing the running mates of Tinubu and Obi.
NAN reports that Tinubu had nominated Masari as a surrogate running mate or placeholder in order to beat the June 17 INEC deadline.
