The Supreme Court has dismissed a suit filed by three members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which sought to disqualify President-elect Bola Tinubu with the claim that he was not qualified to contest the February 25 presidential election.
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, the apex court held that the appellants, led by Memuna Suleiman, lacked the locus standi to have instituted the case before the Federal High Court.
When the case was called, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court held that the appellants, who were not aspirants at the APC presidential primary, could not challenge Tinubu’s nomination.
Following the court’s observation, lawyer to the appellants applied to withdraw the appeal, and the court dismissed it.
The court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal, which was delivered on February 17.
Suleiman and two others had, in the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, listed the APC, Tinubu, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the National Assembly, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
They had prayed the court to, among others, declare that Tinubu did not meet the minimum educational qualification to contest the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
They urged the court to issue an order disqualifying Tinubu as the candidate of the APC for the February 25 presidential election.
The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining Tinubu from parading himself as the presidential candidate of the APC and a further order directing INEC not to recognise him as APC’s candidate.
In a judgment delivered on November 2022, Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court held that the plaintiffs had mis-joined causes of action and lacked the locus standi to institute and maintain the action against the APC.