THE Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has dismissed a suit the immediate past Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, filed to stop the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, from contesting the 2023 presidential election.
Delivering judgment on Friday, December 23, Justice Zainab Abubakar held that the suit was statute-barred, having been filed outside the 14 days period prescribed by Section 285(9) of the 1999 Constitution.
Nwajiuba, a chieftain of the APC and one of the presidential aspirants in the party’s primary conducted to elect its candidate for the 2023 presidential election, failed to show up during the election.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1114/2022, which is now dismissed, Nwajiuba prayed the court to nullify the nomination of Tinubu as flag-bearer of the party for the impending election.
He contended that the primary election that produced Tinubu was not only marred by manifest irregularities, but was conducted in breach of both the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and the Electoral Act.
Justice Abubakar held that the suit, which was filed outside the 14 days allowed by Section 285(9) of the Constitution, had become statute-barred.
Abubakar, who upheld the arguments raised in the preliminary objections of the defence counsel, said her court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
