Emeka Nwajiuba, a former Minister of State for Education, has lost his appeal seeking to disqualify Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar as presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The Supreme Court dismissed the suit in a judgment delivered on Thursday by Justice Inyang Okoro, for being time- barred.
However, before the suit was struck out, the appellant wanted to withdraw the case after the court noted that the appeal was filed outside the time frame prescribed by the law.
The former Minister and the Rights For All International, (RAI), a non government organization (NGO), had earlier approached a Federal High Court in Abuja, to void the processes and procedure that produced Tinubu and Atiku, as candidates of the APC and the PDP, respectively.
In their suit, they alleged that both of them bought the votes of delegates of their political parties at their respective presidential primaries to emerge flag-bearers of their parties.
Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had dismissed the suit, on the basis that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not have the locus standi ( the right or capacity) to file the suit.
Apparently not pleased with the ruling, the plaintiffs proceeded to the Appeal Court.
The Appellate Court also dismissed the suit for lack of merit.
Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) to win the February 25 presidential election.
