The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has dismissed a suit by the Allied Peoples’ Movement seeking to disqualify Peter Obi as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
The three-man panel led by the president of the court of appeal, Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensem in a unanimous decision dismissed the appeal on the ground that the appeal lacked in merit as the APM backed the locus standi to initiate the suit.
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The appellate court also awarded a cost of Two hundred thousand Naira against APM, in favour of the Labour Party and Peter Obi who are the 2nd and 3rd respondents in the suit.
The party had approached the court, contending that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ought not to have recognized Obi as a valid candidate for the presidential poll considering the time he resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and joined the Labour Party.
They argued that the period between when Obi left the PDP and defected to the LP for the purpose of contesting the presidential election was in violation of sections 77(2) and (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The Appellant noted that Obi’s name, not being in the list of LP members that was forwarded to the INEC, made him lack the right to be recognized as a flag-bearer of the party for the impending election.
The APM also urged the appellate court to set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which dismissed the suit it filed to challenge Obi’s candidacy.
The appellate court in its judgement on Wednesday held that APM’s suit was not an abuse of the judicial process but lacking in merit.
The court held that since the suit was filed exactly 11 days after Obi’s name was published by INEC, it was not caught by the 14 days limitation stipulated in Section 285 (9) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and therefore not statute-barred.
It however held that Sections 29 (5), 84(14), and 142 of the Electoral Act, as well as Section 285(14) of the Constitution, clearly defines a person that could lodge a pre-election case to disqualify a candidate in an election, stressing that under section 157 of the Electoral Act, only an aspirant could challenge the nomination of a candidate to INEC.
The plaintiff, in an originating, summon had sought, among other reliefs, “a declaration that, in view of Section 131(c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the 1st defendant’s election time table and schedule of activities for the 2023 general election, the 1st defendant’s electoral guidelines for the conduct of 2023 political party primary elections and nomination of candidates for election, Sections 29(1), 77(2) and (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which mandate the 2nd defendant to maintain a register of its members in both hard and soft copy and make the such register available to the 1st defendant, not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party’s primaries, the 3rd defendant be disqualified from taking part in or otherwise contesting the 2023 presidential election fixed for February 25, 2023.
Editor: Ena Agbanoma
