The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered service of court processes through substituted means on the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just-concluded Presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari and the Atiku Abubakar in the case of alleged infraction of the Electoral Act.

The ex parte order was sequel to a suit filed at the court by the presidential candidate of the National Rescue Movement, Mr Usman Ibrahim.

Mr Ibrahim wants the court to nullify the participation of both candidates in the February 23, 2019 ,presidential poll, because, according to him, they spent more than provided for by the Electoral Act during their campaigns.

Counsel to the plaintiff, Ezekiel Ofou, urged the court to invoke section 91(2) of the Electoral Act, 2010 to nullify the participation of the candidates in the poll for allegedly violating the electoral laws.

He said, “We want the court to make an interpretation of section 91, sub-section 2 of the Electoral Act.

That where someone who is contesting for the position of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria exceeds the statutory limit of expenditure, what is the mind of the court towards that? That is why we are here.”

He claimed that by spending more than one billion naira each, both the APC and PDP candidates had violated the electoral law and were liable to be removed as contestants in the election.

When the matter came up on Tuesday, the plaintiff’s counsel prayed the court for an order of substituted service because he was unable to serve both the President and the PDP candidate.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed granted the request and adjourned further mentioning of the case to March 26, 2019.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

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