Court Quashes Suit For Buhari To Produce WAEC Certificate

A suit seeking to disqualify President Muhammadu Buhari from the 2019 presidential election on the basis of not having a certified secondary school certificate has been dismissed by a Port Harcourt Federal High Court.

The court presided over by Justice Ishaq Sani struck out the case on the claim of lack of locus standi.

Barrister Lezina Amegua had gone to a court since October 2018 asking that Buhari be disqualified on the claim that he was ineligible. He had prayed the court to compel Buhari to produce the original of his secondary school certificate, its equivalent or the master sheet of the results for the year.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the All Progressives Congress, APC were joined as co-defendants in the suit.

Ruling on the case on Tuesday, Justice Sani said that the plaintiff was neither a presidential candidate or  a member of a political party as to show how Buhari’s participation could negatively affect him.

“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 4th 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 obligations perculiar or personal thereto. He must also show that his private rights have been infringed or there is a threat of such infringement or injury,” the judge declared.

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