A suit filed by some concerned Nigerian citizens aimed at stopping the inauguration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his vice president Kashim Shettima has been dismissed by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
In his ruling Friday, Justices James Omotosho maintained that the suit filed by Praise Ilemona Isaiah, Anongu Moses and Pastor Paul Isaac Audu was frivolous and an abuse of the court process.
The concerned citizens in their suit FHC/ABJ/C5/657/2023, claimed that Tinubu lied on oath in the Form EC9 he submitted to INEC ahead of the February 25 presidential elections. They also submitted that Tinubu declared he did not have the citizenship of any other country than Nigeria, whereas he is a carrier of the Guinean passport. Furthermore they said Tinubu claimed that he was born in 1957, but his actual date of birth was 1952. This according to their court filing violated Section 117 of the Criminal Code Act as well as Section 156 of the Penal Code Act.
Justice Omotosho in dismissing the case argued that only an aspirant in the elections could challenge the qualification of an elected candidate in line with section 285 (14) of the 1999 Constitution. He said stopping the inauguration could cause a constitutional crisis. He then awarded a cost of N10 million in Tinubu’s favour, N5 million in favour of the APC and another N1 million to be personally paid by counsel for the plaintiffs, to each of the respondents.
