AFederal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit by former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, and the Incorporated Trustees of Rights for All International (RAI) against the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their presidential candidates.

In the suit, Nwajiuba and RAI had sought, among others, to void the primaries that produced Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as candidates of the APC and PDP for the 2023 presidential election.

They had claimed that both parties’ primaries were marked by corrupt practices and prayed the court to replace Tinubu with the ex-minister, who said he participated in APC’s primary and scored one vote.

Listed as defendants in the suit are: the APC, PDP, Tinubu, Atiku, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a judgment yesterday, Justice Inyang Ekwo declined jurisdiction on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked the locus standi (the legal capacity) to have filed the suit.

He said: “I have perused the averments of the plaintiffs in support of the originating summons and found no evidence that the first plaintiff (RAI) was an aspirant in any of the primary elections for which its complaint is predicated.

“That being the case, the first plaintiff lacks the locus standi to file this action.

“On the locus standi of the second plaintiff, it is averred that the second plaintiff contested the presidential primary of the first defendant (APC) and was said to have scored one vote.

“This simply means that the second plaintiff did pest contest the primary election of the second defendant (PDP).

“In that case, going by the provisions of Section 84 (14) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Section 285 (14) (a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), he was not an aspirant in the primary election of the second defendant.”

“He, therefore, lacks the locus standi to challenge the primary election of the second defendant and the presidential candidate of the second defendant, that is, the fourth defendant (Atiku) in this suit.

“Overall, since this is a joint action, the lack of locus standi of the first plaintiff. This action cannot stand where the first plaintiff has been adjudged not have locus standi to initiate this suit.

“I, therefore, resolve the issue of locus standi against the plaintiffs and in favour of the first and third and indeed the entire defendants,” the judge said.

Justice Ekwo, who determined the case on its merit, after upholding the defendants’ objections, held that there were no credible and reliable evidence provided by the plaintiffs in their support affidavit to support their case.

He dismissed the substantive case for being incompetent.

Justice Ekwo condemned the involvement of RAI, which claimed to be a non-government organisation (NGO), in politically motivated cases.

The judge held that by its involvement in politically motivated cases and, by extension, partisan politics, RAI went outside the objectives for which it was registered under Part F of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)) and taken steps inimical to public policy.

The judge dissolved RAI and ordered the CAC to take over the dissolved group and deal with it in accordance with the provisions of the law on dissolution of bodies registered pursuant to Part F of the CAMA 2022.

THE NATION