By Temitope Adedeji
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, dismissed a suit filed by former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, to nullify the nomination of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the flag bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Zainab Abubakar, ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit, positing that the case was statute-barred having been filed outside the 14 days allowed under Section 285(9) of the Constitution.
In the original suit numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/1114/2022 which had Tinubu, the APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as co-defendants, Nwajiuba had urged INEC to disqualify the former Lagos State Governor and recognize him as the APC candidate.
Nwajuba was also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from accepting the candidacy of Tinubu whom he said was nominated in breach of the law.
The ex-minister has also sought an order mandating INEC to immediately expunge Tinubu’s name from the list of candidates for the 2023 presidential election, and an order returning him (Nwajuba) to the electoral umpire as the APC presidential candidate on the grounds that his nomination met the requirements of the provisions of Section 90(3) of the 2022 Electoral Act.
In a preliminary objection by Tinubu’s counsel, Thomas Ojo, the defendants prayed the court to dismiss the case for being statute barred.
They argued that some of the issues raised by Nwajiuba, including the issue of identity of the source of N100 million fees paid to the party by Tinubu as expression of interest and nomination form fees, among others, were pre-election matter and issues within the domestic affairs of the party.
