High Court Dismiss Nwajiuba’s Appeal Against Tinubu, Atiku’s Candidacy

A lawsuit brought by former minister of state for education Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and the trustees of Rights for All International (RAI) against Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival has been dismissed by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, who rendered the decision on Thursday, refused jurisdiction on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked the legal authority to bring the lawsuit.

RAI, which claimed to be a non-government organization, was criticized for its engagement in cases that had political overtones by Justice Ekwo, who also dismissed the lawsuit as being amateurish.

The Judge held that, by its involvement in politically motivated cases and by extension, partisan politics, RAI went outside the objectives for which it was registered under part of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and taken steps inimical to public policy.

After dissolving RAI, Justice Ekwo instructed the CAC to take control of the organization and conduct its affairs in conformity with the law.

Nwajiuba and RAI sought to have the primaries that produced Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar as the APC and PDP candidates for the 2019 presidential election nullified in the lawsuit, among other things. They also asked the court to replace Tinubu with the former minister who claimed to have taken part in the APC primary but not cast a ballot.

After the Electoral Act’s signing, Nwajiuba had on April 28  resigned from his position as minister, following his intention to run for president in the 2023 general election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC)