Appeal Court dismisses APM’s suit seeking to disqualify Obi

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by the Allied People’s Movement seeking to disqualify the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, from contesting the forthcoming presidential election.

In the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1414/2022, the APM had approached the court, contending that the Independent National Electoral Commission, ought not to have recognized Obi as a valid candidate for the presidential poll.

This, the APM said, was in consideration of the time Obi defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Labour Party.

The party argued that the period of Obi’s defection for the purpose of contesting the presidential election was in violation of sections 77(2) and (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

They also argued that before Obi’s defection, the LP already sent a list of its registered members to the INEC.

According to the appellant, the LP presidential candidate lacked the right to be recognized as a flag-bearer of the party because his name was not on the list of LP members that was forwarded to the INEC.

Consequently, APM urged the appellate court to set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which dismissed the suit it filed to challenge Obi’s candidacy.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, said there was no merit in the appeal filed by APM.

It held that the trial court ab-initio did not have the requisite jurisdiction to entertain the suit since the APM lacked the locus standi to institute the action.

In its judgment, however, the appellate court held that APM’s suit was not an abuse of the judicial process, waving aside the argument by both Obi and the LP that the suit was statute barred.

The court noted that whereas Obi resigned from the PDP on May 24, 2022, INEC published his name as a candidate for the LP on September 20, 2022.

It equally noted that following the publication of Obi’s name, the APM, being a registered political party that also has a candidate for the presidential election, filed its suit on September 30, 2022.

The court held that since the suit was filed exactly 11 days after Obi’s name was published by INEC, it was not caught by the 14 days limitation stipulated in Section 285 (9) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and therefore not statute-barred.

The appellate court emphasized that under section 157 of the Electoral Act, only an aspirant could challenge the nomination of a candidate to INEC and that APM did not qualify as an aspirant, adding that the duty of INEC was to publish names submitted to it by political parties.

The court held that by INEC publishing Obi’s name, “it has done no more than comply with provisions of the Electoral Act”.

Also, the appellate court held that though the APM alleged that Obi’s name was not on the register the LP submitted to INEC, it failed to present the said register in evidence.

Consequently, the appellate court struck out the suit and all the reliefs the party sought before the trial court and awarded a cost of N200,000 each, to both Obi and the LP.

Whereas, the panel which was led by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensem, and Justices Danlami Senchi, and Ugochukwu Ogakwu, concurred with the lead judgement.

(Punch)