The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered three applicants and their lawyer to pay a fine of N17m for filing a vexatious suit that aimed to halt Bola Tinubu’s swearing-in on May 29th as Nigeria’s fifth democratic president. Justice James Omotosho said this was “an abuse of court processes” and an attempt to destabilize democracy in the country. The plaintiffs, none of whom were political candidates or members of any political party, lacked locus standi, he said. The judge dismissed the case, stating that any case challenging the inauguration of a president-elect should go to the Court of Appeal. Meanwhile, a court in Abuja has awarded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) N600,000 and its candidate, Musa Wada, N200,000 against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday. The amount was awarded due to INEC’s duplication of the logo of the Social Democratic Party and the PDP on the ballot paper during the November 2019 Kogi state governorship election.
