The Court of Appeal in Abuja has received a fresh motion seeking to stop the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s new President on May 29, 2023.
News About Nigeria understands that motion was instituted by a Presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential election and constitutional lawyer, Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, and his political party, Hope Democratic Party (HDP).
In the suit marked CA/CV/259/2023, Owuru is praying the Court of Appeal 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.
Owuru, who claimed to be adjudged constitutional winner of the 2019 presidential election, has based his case against the inauguration of Tinubu or any other successor to Buhari on the grounds that he has not spent his tenure as required by law. He insists 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.
Owuru has applied for “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 has also applied for another order directing and placing on notice that any form of handover inauguration, organized and Superintended by Buhari on 29th May 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.
The respondents in the motion on notice are President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 3rd, 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 the INEC was served through the Head of Legal Department and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Mr S. O Ibrahim.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit by the Court of Appeal, but it is supported by an 8-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, expressed apprehension that Owuru’s suit against Buhari would be rendered nugatory unless given quick hearing.
