Court to decide Buhari’s eligibility February 9

A federal high court in Abuja has fixed February 9 for the hearing of the eligibility of Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, to contest the 2015 presidential election. 

The suit, tagged FHC/ABJ/CS/14/2015, requesting among other things, the disqualification of the 72-year-old aspirant for failure to attach necessary academic credentials to the nomination form that he submitted to INEC, was filed by one Max Ozoaka.

Ozoaka had claimed that there were a lot of discrepancies in the documents submitted by Buhari, stating that ‘Mohamed’ Buhari is not the same person as ‘Muhammadu’ Buhari, hence discrediting the veracity of Buhari’s statement of result.

He argued that the INEC FORM CF 001 submitted to INEC by the APC candidate was incomplete. He therefore urged the court to declare the form as “not in conformity with the form prescribed under the Electoral Act”.

He said Buhari’s failure to accompany the INEC Form with evidence of his educational qualifications and evidence of his birth certificate or affidavit of declaration of age had altogether rendered the form inchoate.

In a supporting affidavit to the originating summons, Ozoaka said the INEC Form submitted by Buhari did not meet the requirements under Sections 31(1)(2) & (3), and 31(8) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, the presiding judge, made an order of substituted service on Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission, who are the two defendants in the suit.

The court fixed February 9 for the hearing of the suit.

Meanwhile, another suit presented before the Abuja high court requested for the postponement of the general election, citing INEC’s inability to distribute Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) to all eligible voters.