The Supreme Court has dismissed a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to stop the inauguration of Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima.
Delivering judgment in the case on Friday, Justice Adamu Jauro, who delivered the judgment of a 5-member panel of the apex court, held that the opposition PDP lacked the locus standi to file the appeal, stressing that it was lacking in merit.
The apex court noted that the appeal brought to it by the PDP was an internal affair of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which produced Tinubu and Shettima, hence PDP only acted as a meddlesome interloper in an issue in which it lacked jurisdiction.
It, therefore, upheld the decisions of the lower courts which had ruled on the matter, stressing that the PDP had unnecessarily interfered in the case as an unauthorised party and mere meddlers.
Justice Jauro also ordered the PDP to pay a fine of N2 million for the misconduct of intentionally misleading the court with such tactics, which the court described as “regrettable.”
Periscope International reports that the PDP had filed the suit seeking to nullify the nomination of Shettima as Tinubu’s presidential running mate on the ground that Shettima was nominated twice for election in 2022, having earlier been nominated for Senate before Tinubu nominated him for vice president.
The PDP had therefore argued that Shettima’s nomination was in violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, which prohibits double nomination and, by implication, nullified his joint ticket with Tinubu, urging the court to declare their election null and void and stop the inauguration of the duo slated for May 29.
Members of the Supreme Court panel who handled the suit included:
Hon Justice Iyang Okoro,
Hon Justice Amina Augie,
Hon Justice Helen Ogunwumiju,
Hon Justice Adamu Jauro,
Hon Justice Emmanuel Agim.
With this development, the final hurdle to the inauguration of Tinubu and Shettima as President and Vice President has been cleared and the May 29 event is now a fait accompli.
A legal luminary and PDP member from Plateau State who spoke to Periscope International after the Supreme Court judgment said that
the apex court’s decision which frowns at meddling in the internal affairs of another political party has nailed the final coffin on the hope of APC winning its governorship case against PDP’s Caleb Mutfwang in court, based on judicial precedence.
