Court dismisses PDP suit seeking to disqualify Tinubu, Obi

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to disqualify the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi.

Justice Donatus Okoronkwo on Monday dismissed the suit on the grounds that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain it, saying it was a gross abuse of court process.

Okoronkwo also noted that all the reliefs sought by the PDP were not grantable.

The PDP had challenged the legality of the substitution of the running mates for Tinubu and Obi.

The party claimed that the Electoral Act 2022 did not make provision for a “placeholder” or temporary running mate and that the replacement of running mates was not applicable to Ibrahim Masari and Doyin Okupe.

READ: Tinubu’s running mate Masari says, ‘Originals of my certificates missing’

PDP also contended that Tinubu and Obi can only qualify to contest the 2023 presidential election with Masari and Okupe, as their respective running mates.

It further claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacked the power to accept any withdrawal or substitution of Masari and Okupe without the APC and Labour Party conducting fresh primaries to substitute Tinubu and Obi, amongst others.

Obi had selected Okupe as his placeholder to beat INEC’s deadline but later replaced him with Datti Baba-Ahmed.

Similarly, Masari was also the placeholder for Tinubu but the APC candidate later substituted him with the ex-governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima.