A federal high court in Abuja, yesterday, dismissed a suit seeking to stop the swearing-in of the president-elect, Bola Tinubu on Monday.
The suit was filed by three individuals: Praise Ilemona Isaiah, Pastor Paul Audu and Anongu Moses, who identified themselves as Concerned Citizens.
The trio, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/C5/657/2023, argued that Tinubu violated Section 117 of the Criminal Code Act and Section 156 of the Penal Code Act for providing false information in the Form EC9 – affidavit in support of particulars of persons seeking election into public offices – issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
They said that Tinubu lied on oath that he was not a citizen of any other country though he possesses a Guinean passport, which shows that he holds dual citizenship.
They also alleged that the President-elect lied about his age, claiming that he was born in 1957 though his actual year of birth is 1952.
For the aforementioned reasons, the Concerned Citizens sought for an injunction to arrest and detain Tinubu thereby preventing his inauguration on Monday, pending the determination of cases before the presidential election tribunal.
They equally prayed the court to ban Tinubu from contesting for any elective position for the next ten years.
Delivering the judgment, Justice James Omotosho said the trio lacked the locus standi – legal right – to file a suit challenging the qualification or nomination of a candidate for an election. He explained that under section 285 (14) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, only an aspirant could challenge the qualification or nomination of another.
Justice Omotosho added that the matter is outside the scope of the court’s authority because it relates to a presidential election, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal.
The Judge, therefore, described the suit as “unconstitutional, frivolous and vexatious”, and berated the Concerned Citizens for wasting the judicial time of the court by filing the suit.
He held that the suit, which sought to prevent the inauguration which is in three days, was capable of destabilising the democracy in the country.
Consequently, he dismissed the suit and ordered the trio to pay Tinubu and the APC N5 million and N10 million, respectively.
The judge also ordered their lawyer to pay N1 million to each of the respondents in the suit: the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress, APC; the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF; the Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS; the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He further threatened to refer their lawyer to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for instituting an action “capable of dragging the judiciary to the mud.”
