Supreme Court Dismisses PDP’s Double Nomination Suit Against Kashim Shettima
LAGOS MAY 26TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Supreme Court Friday dismissed the suit by the Peoples Democratic Party seeking the disqualification of the ticket that produced the president-elect, Bola Tinubu and the vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima in the 2023 presidential election.
The apex court thus affirmed that the duo of the All Progressives Congress were eligible to contest the presidential election held on February 25.
In an appeal marked SC/CV/501/2023, the opposition party sought Tinubu’s disqualification on grounds of the double nomination of his vice in the race, Shettima.
The party claimed that the vice president-elect, Shettima was nominated twice, both for the Borno Central Senatorial seat and for the Vice Presidential position.
PDP argued that Shettima’s dual nomination was in gross breach of the provisions of Sections 29(1), 33, 35 and 84(1) and (2) of the Electoral Act, 2022, as amended.
They prayed the court to nullify Tinubu’s and Shettima’s candidacy.
They also applied for an order to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to remove their names from the list of nominated or sponsored candidates that were eligible to contest the presidential poll.
Opposing the position by the plaintiff, Lateef Fagbemi SAN contended that the PDP ought to have remained an onlooker no matter its grievance In how the APC nominated its candidates.
“It is abundantly clear that the Appellant in the totality of its position in the instant case, is peeping and poke-nosing into the affairs of another party as a busybody and meddlesome interloper,” he said.
In a unanimous decision of a five-man panel, the court held that an appeal by the PDP challenging the validity of the Tinubu/Shettima ticket lacked merit.
Delivering the lead judgment on the suit, Justice Adamu Jauro upheld the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court in Abuja, which earlier dismissed the case.
The court ruled that the plaintiff lacked the legal right to meddle in the affairs of the APC which nominated the duo as its candidates in the election and dismissed it.
Describing the appeal as an activity of “a nosy busy-body and a meddlesome interloper, the court stressed that the law does not permit a political party to dabble in the domestic affairs of another party.
The court agreed with the respondents that section 285 (14) (c ) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2022, did not confer to them the legal right to question the candidature of Shettima on the ground of double nomination.
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Posted by News Rangers
on May 26 2023. Filed under National.
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