By Vivian Okejeme
The inauguration of Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as President and Vice President respectively has been sealed as Supreme court dismissed a suit instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking their disqualification from the 2023 presidential election.
The five-man panel of Justices of the Apex court, led by Justice Adamu Jauro, held that the PDP’s appeal praying disqualification of Tinubu and Shettima on grounds of alleged double nomination by Shettima was grossly lacking in merit and dismissed it.
Consequently, the court awarded a cost of N2million against PDP.
It held that PDP has no right to meddle in the internal affairs of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the conduct of its primary elections and nomination of its candidates.
Justice agreed with Tinubu’s lawyer, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN that PDP acted as busy body and meddlesome interloper in the ways and manners it dabbled into APC’s affairs unjustly.
The Apex Court held that apart from the fact that PDP lacked requisite jurisdiction to institute the suit, the party also failed to prove by documentary evidence that Shettima engaged in double nomination.
It maintained that Shettima withdrawn from the Senatorial race before accepting the nomination for Vice Presidential candidate for the APC
Therefore, the Apex court described the PDP’s claim on the alleged double nomination of the Vice President-elect as most unfortunate and a clear deliberate mischief to mislead the Court and the country.
The Supreme Court also agreed with lawyer Fagbemi SAN that no matter the pains of PDP on how APC conducted its primary election and nominated its candidates, PDP must remain onlooker.
“It is abundantly clear that the Appellant (PDP) in the totality of its position in the instant case, is peeping and poke nosing into the affairs of another party as a busy body and meddlesome interloper”
The Court held that the action of PDP was painful because it used the social media to set a trap for the Supreme Court to blackmail it.
“This is most unfortunate, unwarranted and uncalled for and I advise the perpetrators to desist from it,” the court stated.
