Supreme Court dismisses ex minister Nwajiuba’s suit against Tinubu, Atiku

THE Supreme Court on Thursday, March 30 dismissed an appeal filed by a former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, seeking the disqualification of the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, from the just concluded Presidential election.

Justice Inyang Okoro, who led a panel of Justices of the apex court, dismissed the appeal when the former minister withdrew his appeal after learning that it had been submitted outside of the legal deadline and was, therefore, statute barred.

The Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in Abuja had dismissed the matter on the grounds that the case lacked merit.

Nwajiuba and a non-governmental organisation, Rights for Everyone International, had petitioned the Supreme Court to annul the procedures that resulted in Tinubu and Abubakar emerging the candidates for their respective political parties.

Nwajiuba resigned from his ministerial position in 2022 to contest the APC presidential primary but was absent on the day of the exercise.

In the case with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/942/22, which had the APC, the PDP, Tinubu, Atiku, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants, Nwajiuba accused Tinubu and Atiku of bribing delegates with dollars in the APC and PDP presidential primaries.

He asked the court to nullify the votes obtained by the two presidential candidates in the primary elections.

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