Actions by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to get the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima disqualified by the courts for an alleged double nomination of Shettima have hit a brick wall at the Court of Appeal.
On Friday, the court held that the PDP does not have the locus standi to institute, maintain or demand the reliefs it sought as it was not an aspirant in the primaries of the APC and that Section 285 (14) (c ) of the 1999 Constitution does not grant it locus to challenge either the primaries or the nomination of Shettima.
The appeal was consequently dismissed by the Court for want of merit and awarded in favour of each of the respondents, namely APC, its Presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Senator Shettima and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the sum of N5 million.
The appeal stemmed from the January 13, 2023 judgment of Justice Ekwo Inyang of the Federal High Court in the suit filed
by the PDP and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal against the election of Tinubu (APC, Tinubu, Shettima and INEC).
The plaintiffs had sought the following reliefs:
"A declaration that by the provisions of Section 35 of the Electoral Act 2022,the 4th Respondent (Shettima) is disqualified from participating in the February 25,2023 Presidential Election having knowingly allowed himself to be nominated in two constituencies as Senator Borno Central District and as Vice Presidential candidate of the 2nd Respondent (APC).
*A declaration that the nominations of the 3rd (Tinubu) and 4th Respondents as Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates of the 2nd Respondent (APC) is void having regards to the double nominations of the $th Respondent.
What were they expecting from d court's as for me am not expecting anything else.
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