Court kicks out suit seeking Buhari's disqualification in 2019 election

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has thrown out a case seeking to nullify the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election on academic grounds.

In a judgement on Friday, July 12, 2019, the Court said the application was brought outside the specified time for pre-election matters.

A three member panel of the Court let by Justice Atinuke Akomolafe-Wilson had reserved judgment for Friday after entertaining arguments from the appellants on Wednesday, July 10, 2019.

The applicants, Kalu Kalu, Labaran Ismail and Hassy Kyari el-Kuris, had approached the Appeal Court after a Federal High Court dismissed their application citing wrong timing.

In a judgement read by Justice Mohammed Idris on behalf of the three member panel, the Appeal Court agreed with the FHC and struck out the motion.

It then added that based on section 285 (9) of the 1999 Constitution, the case was brought later than the stipulated period of 14 days when a pre-election matter ought to have been brought.

The court further held that even if the first part of the application had succeeded and the court agreed that the matter was not brought out of time, the stipulated period when such a pre-election matter ought to have been determined elapsed since May.

Consequently, the court ruled that it cannot accord itself any jurisdiction outside that given to it by the Constitution.

President Buhari is currently facing the tribunal where the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is challenging his victory at the February 23, 2019 poll.

Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, claims he defeated President Buhari by over 1.6 million votes.