THE SUPREME COURT HAS DISMISSED THE PDP’S LAWSUIT CONTESTING SHETTIMA’S “DOUBLE NOMINATION.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appealed the Supreme Court’s decision to find that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, and Kashim Shettima, the vice president-elect of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had been nominated twice, but the case was dismissed on Friday.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the PDP lacks locus standi (legal standing) to bring a lawsuit against the APC’s internal affairs. Justice Adamu Jauro delivered the majority opinion.

The court dismissed the appeal because it lacked merit after Justice Jauro stated that “Whichever angle, this appeal is viewed, it is frivolous and liable to be dismissed.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC, Tinubu, and Shetimma, who were the first to fourth respondents in the appeal, won a N2 million fine against the PDP.

According to Justice Jauro, the appellant lacks the legal standing to contest the APC’s nomination of its presidential and vice presidential candidates for the general elections of 2023 because she did not vote in the party’s primary.

The PDP was labeled a meddling interloper and a busy body for filing the lawsuit, and the court found that the constitution forbids political parties from meddling in the internal affairs of other political parties.

The PDP’s request to have Tinubu and Shettima disqualified as the APC’s presidential and vice presidential candidates in the election on February 25 was rejected by the Court of request in Abuja.

The PDP had sought the appellate court to overturn the January 13 verdict of Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which had dismissed its complaint on the grounds that the PDP lacked locus standi to have initiated the claim. The PDP’s appeal was designated CA/ABJ/CV/108/2023.

The PDP failed to prove its locus standi to bring the legal action, according to the unanimous ruling of the three-judge Court of Appeal panel.

Details to come…