He said that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (legal right) to initiate the case, which invariably challenged the decision of the political party and its internal affairs.

apc Lawyer, Ibrahim Auduhe also spoke in the same vein.

The Nigerian News Agency (NAN) reports that the group had sued the president of INEC, APC and Mr. Tinubu as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.

The group, in an original motion on notice, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1960/22, requested a writ of mandamus directing INEC to exercise its statutory power in accordance with Section 84(13) of the Electoral Act 2022 to immediately remove Tinubu’s name from its final list of presidential candidates contesting the 2023 election.

The group alluded to the fact that APC failed to comply with the mandatory provisions of Section 91(3) of the Election Act 2022, which stipulates that a political party shall not receive any contribution in cash or in kind exceeding N50 million without showing the fountain. of the contribution to INEC, among others

But Tinubu, in a preliminary objection filed by his lead lawyer, Lateef FagbemiSAN, begged the court to dismiss the claim as incompetent.

Giving a 14-reason argument, the lawyer said the subject matter of the lawsuit was a challenge to his client’s eligibility to run in the 2023 presidential election on the grounds that the APC failed and/or forgot to identify the source of the N100 million you paid for your expression of interest and nomination form.

He described the lawsuit as not justiciable.

Fagbemi argued that the lawsuit was time-barred because the plaintiff had not filed his lawsuit against Tinubu within the 14-day period stipulated by the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

He said the court therefore lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

It further argued that the plaintiff’s process of origin is incompetent since the nomenclature “Motion of origin on notification” is an appropriate process for a pre-election matter.

Justice Nyako January 27 set for trial after plaintiff’s counsel, Johnmary Jideobi; APC’s lawyer, Audu, and Fagbemi, who appeared for Tinubu, adopted their processes and presented their arguments for and against the lawsuit.