Court Dismisses Suit Seeking to Sack Buhari

A Federal High Court in Abuja has on Monday dismissed the suit by a former presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party, Chief Ambrose Owuru, against the election of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), in the 2019 presidential election.

The suit seeking Buhari’s was dismissed by Justice Inyang Ekwo on three grounds.

One of the grounds was that the suit constituted a gross abuse of court process, statute barred and was an affront to the supremacy of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

The judge also held that the suit was baseless and frivolous.

Owuru had instituted the legal action against Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Owuru, a British-trained constitutional lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984 asked the Federal High Court to declare him as the winner of the poll.

Among other reliefs, he had asked the court to determine the legality or otherwise of the decision by INEC in 2019 during which it postponed the election from February 16 to March 23.

He claimed that INEC acted against the constitution in illegal and unlawful ways and manners the presidential poll was shifted and the declaration of Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the unlawful act should be declared null and void and of no effect.

The ground of his claim was predicated on the fact that the petition he lodged against Buhari had not been adjudicated upon by the Supreme Court as required by law.

The politician claimed that his petition at the Supreme Court was unjustly dismissed following his absence from the Apex Court due to discrepancies in the hearing dates conveyed to him.

He, therefore, prayed the court removes Buhari and declares him (Owuru) the authentic President and that Buhari should be compelled to refund all monies he collected as salaries, emoluments and security votes.

The HDP presidential candidate also asked the court to order his inauguration for a four-year tenure of office upon removal of Buhari from office and that the Federal High Court should stop INEC from conducting the 2023 presidential election.

While claiming that his tenure had been usurped by President Buhari, the plaintiff prayed that the court should compel Buhari to refund all monies he collected as salaries, emoluments and security votes.

Justice Ekwo had on November 4 last year fixed January 30 as the judgment date following the adoption of final addresses by Buhari, the AGF, INEC and the plaintiff.