The Court of Appeal in Abuja has set the stage for a definite hearing today, in a fresh suit seeking to stop the inauguration of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on May 29.
The suit marked CA/ABJ/CV/259/2023 seeks to prevent Tinubu from being inaugurated as Nigeria’s new President to take over government on May 29. The Appeal Court ordered that the suit must be heard unfailingly by 3pm today.
In a bid to clear the coast for hearing of the suit, Tinubu filed a joinder motion, which was argued in court by his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN. In a brief ruling, the Appellate Court granted Tinubu’s request and joined him as the 4th respondent, along with President Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Immediately after joining Tinubu in the suit, the court ordered that Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), INEC and Tinubu file their Respondents’ Briefs and serve the Appellants by 10 am yesterday.
The Appellants were given the green light to file their Reply Brief and serve the Respondents by 12 noon yesterday, after which the suit will be heard by 3 pm the same day.
Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, a Presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential election and constitutional lawyer, instituted the suit alongside his political party, Hope Democratic Party (HDP).
Owuru wants the Court of Appeal in Abuja to prohibit President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from inaugurating the 2023 President-elect on May 29.
The politician, who participated in the 2019 presidential poll on the platform of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), seeks to halt any further steps by Buhari, AGF, and INEC on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as the winner.
Owuru claimed to be the adjudged Constitutional winner of the 2019 presidential election. He predicated his grouse against the inauguration of Tinubu or anyone else as successor to Buhari on the ground that Buhari has not spent his four-year 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 the election winner.
Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed Owuru’s first suit on January 30, 2023.
The hearing is scheduled to take place today, May 20, 2023.
