The suit challenging former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s ability to run for president was dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday.
Justice Inyang Ekwo rejected the action on the grounds that the plaintiff lacked locus standi (legal standing) to do so.
The petitioner was described by Justice Ekwo as a “busy body and meddlesome interloper.”
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/177/2019, a group called Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa sued Atiku, the People’s Democratic Party, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the Attorney General of the Federation as the first to fourth respondents, InsightnaijaTV reports.
The EMA questioned Atiku’s ability to run for president on the grounds that he was not a naturalised Nigerian citizen.
The organisation urged the court to rule, among other things, that the former vice president is unable to run for president because of the provisions of Sections 25(1) and (2) of the constitution, as well as the circumstances surrounding his birth.
According to NAN, the Adamawa State Government, through its Attorney-General (AG), requested an order from the court on July 27, 2021, to be joined in the complaint.
The court allowed the AG of Adamawa’s request to be added to the case as the 5th defendant in a motion dated April 26 and filed June 24.
The Adamawa government has informed the court that Atiku was qualified to run for president.
It stated that Atiku, the primary target of the complaint, is a Nigerian citizen from Adamawa who was elected governor of the state in 1999 and served as vice president of the country from 1999 to 2007.
It claimed that the lawsuit jeopardised not just the ex-vice president’s right to run for president, but that it also jeopardised the right of other ex-vice presidents to run for president “but that of the citizens of Nigeria, of Adamawa origin covering 12 out of the 21 Local Government Areas in the state.”
