Plaintiffs withdraw eligibility suit against Buhari’s participation in March 28 poll

Buhari

Plaintiffs in two of the three pending suits challenging the eligibility of the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to participate in the March 28 presidential election have withdrawn their cases.

After the plaintiffs indicated their intention to withdraw the suits on Wednesday, Justice Adeniyi Ademola who has been presiding over the matters at the Federal High Court in Abuja consequently struck out the matter.

Counsel to one of the plaintiffs, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, told the judge on Wednesday that his client decided to withdraw his suit to afford the incoming government time to focus on the “enormous task” of governance.

When the other case which was filed by Max Ozoaka was called up, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Dr. Chike Amobi, equally adduced similar grounds for withdrawing the suit.

As things stand now, the only eligibility suit against Buhari still pending is the one filed by Ayakeme Whiskey (FHC/ABJ/CS/68/15). As at press time, no date has been fixed for the hearing in the pending suit.

Buhari, who was the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared winner of the election on April 1, after defeating the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The plaintiffs had filed the suits challenging Buhari’s eligibility, requesting the court to declare him ineligible to contest in the election on the basis of his alleged failure to submit his certificate of academic qualifications along with his Form CF001 to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The plaintiffs’ argued that the failure of erstwhile presidential candidate to submit his certificate of academic qualifications contravened provisions of sections 131 and 318 of the 1999 Constitution and section 31(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010.