By Fadehan Oyeyemi Three Abuja-based lawyers on Wednesday in Abuja dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) befo...
By Fadehan Oyeyemi
Three Abuja-based lawyers on Wednesday in Abuja dragged the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before a Federal High Court
seeking an order against the electoral body not to accept the nomination of
Bola Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, as presidential candidates in
the 2023 general elections.
The grouse of the lawyers amongst others is that Tinubu,
Atiku and Obi were unlawfully nominated by their respective political parties.
Plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1004/2022 are
Ataguba Aboje, Oghenovo Otemu and Ahmed Yusuf.
Apart from INEC other defendants in the suit instituted on
June 29 are; the Attorney General of the Federation ( AGF), All Progressives
Congress ( APC), People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) and Labour Party (LP) as 1st
to 5th respectively.
In the suit filed on their behalf by Ataguba Aboje, the
plaintiffs are contending that APC, PDP and LP contravened provisions of the
1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022, in the conduct of the primary
elections that produced their presidential candidates.
Amongst others, they are contending that the three parties
flouted the law by their failure to nominate their Vice Presidential candidates
before the conduct of their primary elections as required by law.
Amongst issues they want the court to determine is whether,
by the provisions of Sections 131, 141 and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, the
office of the Vice President of Nigeria is an elective office subject to the
same qualification as the office of the President of Nigeria.
They also asked the court to determine whether by the
provisions of Sections 131, 141 and 142 of the Constitution and Sections 29,
32, 84 and 152 of the Electoral Act, 2022, a candidate for an election to the
office of the Vice President in Nigeria must be sponsored by a political party
and whether in view of the same provisions a candidate for an election to the
office of the President can be deemed to be validly nominated and declared
winner of a primary election without first nominating associate from the same
political party for the office of Vice President and both of them participating
in the primary.
Plaintiffs further want the court to determine whether,
given the same provisions of the laws, INEC can accept from a political party,
the nomination of a candidate for election to the office of the President who
participated alone in the primary election without nominating another candidate
as an associate from the same political party to occupy the office of the Vice
President.
Upon determination of the issues, the lawyers want the court
to make a declaration that the office of the Vice President is an elective
office subject to the same qualification as the office of the President and
another declaration that a candidate for an election to the office of the Vice
President must be sponsored by a political party in accordance with Section 84
of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Similarly, the lawyers seek a declaration that APC, PDP and
LP candidates for the office of the Vice President must participate together
with their respective candidates for the election to the office of the
President in their primary elections before they can be deemed validly elected.
Plaintiffs further sought another declaration that their
Presidential candidates who did not participate together with their respective
associates for the office of Vice President in their primary elections are
invalidly nominated.
They, therefore, applied for an order restraining INEC from
recognizing Presidential candidates of APC, PDP and LP for failing to comply
with the mandatory provisions of Sections 131 and 142 of the 1999 Constitution
as well as Sections 29, 32, 84 and 152 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
In their 27- paragraph affidavit in support of the
originating summons and deposed to by Ataguba Aboje, plaintiffs claimed that as
lawyers, they have a duty to ensure that no person or group shall govern or
take control of the Government of Nigeria except in accordance with the
democratic provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
They averred that the 1999 Constitution makes it mandatory
for a Presidential candidate to be sponsored by a political party and that such
candidates shall not be deemed validly nominated unless the candidate nominates
another person from the same political as his running mate.
Plaintiffs asserted that APC, PDP and LP conducted their
Presidential primaries during which Tinubu, Atiku and Obi were declared winners
without a concurrent and contemporaneous declaration of candidates for the
office of the Vice President.
They further averred that several days after the conclusion
of their respective primaries, APC, PDP and LP submitted to INEC names of
Alhaji Kabir Masari, Senator Ifeanyi Ókowa and Dr Doyin Okupe as their
respective Vice Presidential candidates and as such nomination of their
Presidential candidates is not in compliance with the 1999 Constitution.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the
suit.
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