Plaintiffs in the two of the three pending suits challenging the eligibility of the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to contest in the March 28, 2015, presidential election have been withdrawn.Justice Adeniyi Ademola who is presiding over the matters at the Federal High Court in Abuja subsequently struck out the matter after the plaintiffs indicated their intention to withdraw the suits on Wednesday.
Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) who is representing one of the plaintiffs, 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 second case which was filed by Max Ozoaka was called, his lawyer, Dr. Chike Amobi, also adduced similar grounds for withdrawing the suit.
With the Wednesday’s development, the remaining pending eligibility suit against Buhari is the one filed by Ayakeme Whiskey (FHC/ABJ/CS/68/15).
As of the time of filing this story, no date has been fixed for the hearing in the pending suit.
Buhari, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, was on April 1 declared winner of the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The plaintiffs had filed the suits challenging Buhari’s eligibility, asking 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.
The plaintiffs claim that Buhari’s failure 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.
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