The Federal High Court in Abuja, has slated October 6 to hear a suit seeking to disqualify the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, for allegedly acting in breach of the Electoral Act.
The suit which was instituted by the immediate past Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, and filed alongside a non governmental organization under the aegis of the Incorporated Trustees of Rights for All International, is equally praying the court to disqualify the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, over the same allegation.
Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered service of all the relevant court processes as well as hearing notices on all the Defendants in the matter.
It will be recalled that Nwajiuba, who is a chieftain of the APC and one of its presidential aspirants, had secured leave of the court to sue both his partyโs presidential flag-bearer, Tinubu, and that of the PDP, Atiku.
Specifically, the Plaintiffs, in the suit they filed through their lawyer, Mr. Okere Nnamdi, alleged that the primary election that produced Tinubu as the 2023 presidential candidate of the APC, was marred by corruption and massive vote buying, insisting that majority of the delegates were bought over with dollars.
To strengthen his allegation, the ex-Minister who polled only one vote at the primary election that held on June 8, included in his proof of evidence, a video recording showing the immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, decrying that delegates at the APC primary sold their votes.
Besides, the Plaintiffs queried Tinubuโs source of income and his educational qualifications.
They urged the court to declare that Tinubu, โwho had previously sworn an affidavit in the INEC nomination form declaring that he lost his primary and secondary school documents and benefitted therefrom, cannot in a later affidavit deny and abandon same facts deposed in the previous affidavit and thus falsely contradicting his academic qualificationsโ.
