Ex-presidential Candidate Owuru Asks A’ Court to Stop Tinubu’s Inauguration

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

A former presidential candidate, Chief Ambrose Owuru, has filed a fresh suit at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, against the May 29 inauguration of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Owuru, who participated in the 2019 presidential election under the platform of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), in the suit, is specifically asking for an order prohibiting President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from swearing in Tinubu as president come May 29.

In the fresh suit marked CA/CV/259/2023, the plaintiff also wants the court stop Buhari, AGF and INEC from taking any further steps on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as winner.

Owuru predicated his case against the swearing-in of Tinubu or anybody else as successor to Buhari on the grounds that he is the constitutionally adjudged winner of the 2019 election and has not spent his tenure as required by law.

Among others, Owuru insisted that President Buhari has been usurping his tenure of office since 2019 because the Supreme Court has not determined his petition filed in 2019 in which he challenged the purported declaration of Buhari as winner of the poll.

Amongst the reliefs he is seeking from the court include: “An order of prohibitory injunction compelling Buhari, AGF and INEC, their servants, agents and privies to preserve and give due cognizance and abstain from any further undertaking or engaging in any act of usurpation of adjudged acquired constitutional rights and mandate as winner of the 2019 presidential election.”

He is also praying for another order directing and placing on notice that any form of handover or inauguration organized and Superintended by Buhari on May 29, 2023 outside the adjudged winner of the 2019 presidential election, subject of the pending appeal, remains and is viewed as an “interim place holder” administration pending the hearing and determination of his substantive appeal on constitutional interpretation thereof.

Listed as respondents in the motion on notice are President Buhari, AGF and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as first to third, respectively.

The motion on notice filed on his behalf by Mr Odion Peter has been served on President Buhari and AGF through their counsel, Mrs Maimuna Lami Ashiru of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja, while that of INEC was served through the Head of Legal Department and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr S. O Ibrahim.

The motion is supported by an eight-paragraph affidavit praying the Court of Appeal for expeditious hearing before the inauguration of Tinubu.

The affidavit deposed to by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Adebayo Anafowode, and filed at the Court of Appeal in Abuja expressed apprehension that Owuru’s suit against Buhari would be rendered nugatory unless given quick hearing.

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for hearing.