The Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed an appeal filed by Action Alliance against the Independent National Electoral Commission, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Bola Tinubu. The suit sought to disqualify the APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, from the 2023 election on the grounds that he forged his University of Chicago certificate and falsely claimed to have attended Government College, Ibadan. Action Alliance argued that Tinubu was therefore unqualified to contest the presidency and asked the court for a declaration, invoking Sections 224, 23, and 24 of the 1999 Constitution and the APC’s constitution, that the office of the President of Nigeria must be occupied by a person of integrity and impeccable character.
In a judgment delivered on 13 December 2022, the trial court held that the plaintiff’s suit was statute‑barred. Action Alliance appealed on 21 December 2022 (CA/ABJ/CV/1475/2022), requesting that the trial court’s judgment be set aside. In response, Babatunde Ogala SAN, representing the second respondent, the APC, filed a brief of argument and a notice of preliminary objection, contending that the appellant’s brief was predicated on a statute‑barred claim and that the appeal was academic.
When the appeal was heard on 3 February 2023, Julius O. Ishola, appearing for the APC, adopted the notice of preliminary objection and the second respondent’s brief, urging the court to strike out the appeal for lack of merit. Counsel for the appellant filed a reply brief, rejecting the objections and seeking to proceed with the appeal.
The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment, agreed with the counsel for the second and third respondents and dismissed the appeal as statute‑barred, noting that it had been filed more than 22 years after the alleged cause of action arose. The court also held that the appellant lacked locus standi to institute the suit, describing the action as that of a meddlesome interloper.
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