A Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has dismissed a suit seeking to invalidate the candidacy of the Kwara State governorship flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yakubu Salihu.
   
The Citizens Awareness Against Corruption and Social Vices Initiative had filed a suit. FHC/ABJ/CS/1112/2026 against the APC, Salihu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with the Special Adviser to the Governor on Legal Matters, Sambo Muritala, as an observer.
   
In a judgment delivered yesterday, however, Justice Emeka Nwite dismissed the suit for want of locus and awarded N10 million in costs against the claimant, who had alleged that Salihu was doubly nominated in the APC’s House of Assembly and governorship primaries.
   
It had sought a declaration that Salihu’s participation in both primaries and his nomination, sponsorship and screening were null and void. The claimant also prayed the court to direct INEC to reject the second defendant’s nomination, among others.
   
Following preliminary objections from all three defendants in their counter-affidavits challenging the claimant’s locus standi and the court’s jurisdiction, to which the claimant did not respond, the court said it relied on the principle that a plaintiff must show sufficient interest and a threatened or actual injury.
   
Against this background, it held that the claimant – a civil society initiative – was neither an aspirant nor a political party and therefore lacked the locus standi, just as the court lacked jurisdiction.