A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed a certificate forgery case filed by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, governor of Kwara State.
Inyang Ekwo, the judge, said the lawsuit was an abuse of court process.
“If the court is satisfied with the process before it is the same amount of abuse of process, the court has the right, in fact, the duty to request coercive power to punish the party that is in the abuse of process.”
“That power can often be exercised by dismissing actions that lead to abuse. Therefore, I make an order to dismiss this case for abuse of judicial process”, said the judge.
He also stated that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
PDP has sued Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Abdulrasaq and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1324/2022, the PDP prayed for the disqualification of the governor and the APC from the 2023 governorship election for allegedly giving fake West African Examinations Council (WAEC) certificates to secure nominations. .
The party also sought an order from the court compelling INEC to remove the names of Mr. Abdulrazak and the APC from those thrown out for the general poll.
In his judgement, Mr. Ekwo supported the preliminary objection to the suit filed on behalf of the governor by his lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
The judge agreed with Mr. Fagbemi that forgery of certificates and perjury had been raised in another suit in 2019 by former PDP governorship candidate, Rasaki Atunwa, tried and dismissed by another judge, Bassey Ikpeme, for being frivolous and unfair.
Mr. Ekwo said that the PDP has no right to challenge the primary election that produced Mr. Abdulrasaq as the governorship candidate of the APC because he was not a candidate in the primary election.
The judge further agreed with Mr. Fagbemi that the PDP is a busybody and meddlesome because it has no right to participate in the internal affairs of the APC.
PDP’s new suit was filed on behalf of Paul Erokoro, SAN.
The court was asked to invoke sections 171 and 285 of the 1999 constitution as well as section 29 of the Electoral Act to nullify the governor’s planned participation in the upcoming election.
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