Obi recently substituted Okupe with Baze University’s proprietor, Baba-Ahmed, while Tinubu replaced Masari with Senator Shettima
By Kehinde Okeowo
The flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP) in the upcoming 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, has asked a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to dismiss a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking his disqualification for nominating Doyin Okupe as a placeholder.
Last week, the main opposition party, PDP asked the Abuja court to bar Obi from replacing his campaign manager, Okuoe as his running mate.
The PDP equally prayed the court to stop the All Progressives Congress Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, from replacing Kabiru Masari as his running mate.
Okupe recently resigned as Obi’s running mate and was replaced by Baze University’s proprietor, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed, while Tinubu substituted Masari with Senator Kashim Shettima.
Responding to the originating motion,
via a notice of preliminary objection, dated July 18, Obi’s counsel, Mr Alex Ejesieme (SAN) asked the court to strike out or dismiss PDP’s suit on four grounds.
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In the preliminary objection brought pursuant to Order 29 Rule 1 of the Federal High Court, Ejesieme argued that the PDP’s suit is speculative, conjectural in nature, devoid of hard facts and an abuse of court process.
“The plaintiff has not disclosed any reasonable cause of action to activate the jurisdiction of this court. The subject matter of the plaintiff’s suit is not situated within the jurisdictional confines of the Federal High Court. The plaintiff’s suit is a gross abuse of court process,” he argued
Prior to this, the PDP had argued that the term ‘placeholder’ is unknown to the Electoral Act and that Okupe had admitted publicly that he was a mere placeholder
Responding on behalf of Obi and Okupe, their lawyer argued, “Assuming it is established that the third (Tinubu) and sixth (Obi) defendants did indeed make media publications indicating the alleged placeholder status of the fourth (Kabiru Masari) and seventh (Okupe) defendants, does that in its own right constitute a wrongdoing sufficient to activate the cause of action on the plaintiff?
“Is the conduct of the elections for which the defendants are to contest in, bound by the statements made in the media? Obviously not, my lord”
In all, the PDP is seeking five reliefs from the court, including a declaration that by the combined interpretation of Section 142(1) of the constitution, Section 29(1), 31 and 33 of the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s timetable, both Tinubu and Obi must be bound by their submission.
The party asked the court to rule that both Tinubu and Obi will be disqualified the moment they substitute the names of their running mates.
One of the reliefs reads, “A declaration that by the combined interpretation of Section 142(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Sections 29(1), 31, 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, the 1st defendant’s (INEC’s) election timetable, the 3rd (Tinubu) and 6th (Obi) cannot validly contest the 2023 Presidential election without the 4th (Masari) and 7th (Obi) respondents as their respective running mates.”
