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| Tinubu and Peter Obi/Getty Images |
On Monday, the Federal High Court in Abuja declined to bar Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party's nominee, from running in the 2023 presidential election.
In a decision written by Justice Donatus Okorowo, the court also declined to nullify Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for president.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has filed a lawsuit against the two presidential candidates, but it was determined to be without merit and should be dismissed.
The PDP had gone before the court and accused Obi and Tinubu of violating the Electoral Act.
It informed the court that, in violation of election law rules, both Obi and Tinubu neglected to designate their running mates in a timely manner and instead chose to temporarily transfer their Vice Presidential tickets to stand-in.
The PDP informed the court that while Dr. Doyin Okupe was chosen as a placeholder for the Labour Party's candidate, Obi, the APC candidate, Tinubu, submitted the name of Alhaji Kabiru Masari as his own placeholder.
The plaintiff argued that the Electoral Act of 2022 did not include a provision for a "place holder" or interim running partner in the lawsuit with the file number FHC/ABJ/CS/1016/2022.
It claimed that both the LP and the APC had violated the law and the constitution by subsequently resigning, withdrawing, or replacing Okupe and Masari.
The PDP insisted that Okupe and Masari, respectively, could only be Obi and Tinubu's running mates in the 2023 presidential election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, was further said to be without the authority to accept any withdrawal or replacement of both Okupe and Masari without the LP and the APC holding new primaries to replace Obi and Tinubu.
Okupe and Masari, according to PDP's testimony before the court, were not legitimately nominated by the LP and the APC because neither of them was the result of a primary election.
In the meantime, Justice Okorowo said in his decision on Monday that the lawsuit was not only incompetent, but also amounted to a serious abuse of the legal system.
The lawsuit was dismissed after the court determined that it lacked the authority to hear an incompetent case.
Justice Okorowo declared that "this lawsuit qualifies as one that amounts to an abuse of court process."
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