The Independent National Electoral Commission has been dragged to the Federal High Court, Abuja over the nomination of Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar as presidential candidates of their political parties.
Plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1004/2022 are Ataguba Aboje, Oghenovo Otemu and Ahmed Yusuf.
The suit is seeking for the court to issue an order against INEC not to accept the trio as presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections.
According to the lawyers, Tinubu, Atiku and Obi were not lawfully nominated by the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, and the Labour Party.
Other defendants in the suit instituted on June 29 are; the Attorney General of the Federation ( AGF), All Progressives Congress ( APC), People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) and Labour Party (LP) as 1st to 5th respectively.
The plaintiffs said the APC, PDP and LP contravened provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022, in the conduct of the primary elections that produced their presidential candidates.
They also contend that the parties flouted the law by their failure to nominate their Vice Presidential candidates before the conduct of their primary elections as required by law.
Amongst issues they want the court to determine is whether, by the provisions of Sections 131, 141 and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, the office of the Vice President of Nigeria is an elective office subject to the same qualification as the office of the President of Nigeria.
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