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Court throws out PDP suit seeking to disqualify Tinubu, Obi over placeholders

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The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking to disqualify the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi from the 2023 presidential election for picking place holders before announcing their running mates.

The case was dismissed on Monday by Justice Donatus Okorowo on the grounds that the suit was unknown to law and “an abuse of court process.”

Justice Okorowo said the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter, adding that the suit did not disclose any reasonable cause of action against the respondents.

“When a court finds out that a suit is an abuse of court process, the court has the right to dismiss it,” Okorowo stated while delivering his ruling.

Read also:Obi Support Group accuses Lagos Labour Party chairman of working for Tinubu

In the suit filed in June, the PDP had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC, Tinubu, his then place holder, Kabiru Masari, the Labour Party, Obi and his place holder, Doyin Okupe, and asked the court to compel INEC to prevent the two candidates from replacing their running mates with Kashim Shettima and Datti Baba-Ahmed, respectively.

The PDP also wanted the court to disqualify Tinubu and Obi unless they contest the 2023 presidential election alongside their placeholder as their running mates.

The opposition party had also asked the court to determine if “by the combined interpretation of Section 142(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sections 29(1), 31, 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, the first defendant (INEC) can validly accept any change or substitution of the Masari and Okupe as running mates of the APC and LP respectively.”

It also asked the court to rule that the presidential candidates be disqualified for substituting their running mates’ names, arguing that the term ‘placeholder’ is unknown to Nigerian law.

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