2023: A COURT DISMISSES A CLAIM AGAINST TINUBU’S CANDIDACY

In advance of the 2023 elections, the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the lawsuit against All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The discharge was verified by a statement from Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media & Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council.

It stated that various charges launched against Tinubu by opposition groups, including Action Alliance, were recently dismissed by the courts due to their frivolity, lack of merit, and abuse of the legal system.

Elder Ngozika Ihuoma, the plaintiff in the case with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/854/2022, was referred to by Justice Fadima Aminu Muritala as a “meddlesome interloper having no locus standi to institute the complaint.”

The fourth case to be dismissed by the courts in recent weeks is the most recent.

After the APC’s attorney Julius Ishola Esq from Babatunde Ogala & Co urged the Court to dismiss the action with steep costs for wasting court time, Justice Muritala dismissed the case for being speculative.

On June 9, 2022, Ihuoma filed a lawsuit against Tinubu and five other individuals after Tinubu won the APC presidential primary.

He asked for six reliefs, including that Tinubu not be allowed to run for president in 2023 by INEC.

The All Progressives Congress submitted a counter affidavit in opposition to the Originating Summons and a Notice of Preliminary Objection in response to the lawsuit on behalf of Babatunde Ogala (SAN) & Co.

Ihuoma’s locus standi and the basis for the action were contested in the counter affidavit.

It asked the court to rule that because the matter involved a political party’s internal affairs, it was speculative, preemptive, and non-justiciable.

Ihuoma’s case was criticized in the counter affidavit as being academic, theoretical, and an abuse of the legal system.

On Monday, the court upheld the defense attorney’s arguments and dismissed the case.