Court Dismisses Certificate Suit Against Buhari

Court dismisses certificate suit against Buhari

A Federal High
Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has struck out the case
seeking to disqualify President Muhammadu Buhari from the 2019 elections
over circumstances surrounding his school certificate.

BUHARI A
lawyer, Lezina Amegua, had prayed the court to compel the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, to disqualify the President, but
the trial judge, Justice Ishaq Sani, struck out the case for lack of
merit. Also joined as respondents in the suit
were All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

Amegua
had sought an order of the court for the President to produce his
original school certificate or its equivalent and master sheet of the
said results before the court and for INEC to also tender receipt of its
record of same documents or its equivalent submitted to it by the
President. Justice Sani, in his ruling, said the plaintiff from the
facts deposed to in his affidavit in support, did not show how
production of the first defendant’s original school certificate or its
equivalent affects his interest as an individual.

The court
further held that the plaintiff did not contest any electoral position
in 2015, neither was he a presidential candidate nor a political party
to protest the participation and qualification of the President in 2015
and the 2019 general election.

According to Justice Sani, “the
concept of locus standi focuses not on the merit of the case, but of the
person seeking to approach the court. “The essence is to protect the
court from being used as playground by professional litigants, busy
bodies, meddlesome interlopers and cranks that have no real stake or
interest in the subject matter of the litigation they seek to pursue.

“I
agree with learned counsel for the fourth defendant that the plaintiff
has no relationship with the reliefs in this suit and to grant same as
rightly submitted would amount to opening the floodgates for the
institution of actions, whether or not it affects the right of the
plaintiff.

“There must be a dispute between a person who makes a
claim and the one against whom the claim is made and the action must be
justiciable.

“Plaintiff must show that the act complained of
affects rights and obliga-tions peculiar or personal thereto. He must
also show that his private rights have been infringed upon or there is a
threat of such infringement or injury.”

Source:- Vanguardngr