Lawyer Moves To Stop Tinubu’s Presidential Inauguration

By Ayodele Oni

A fresh motion on notice stating why Bola Tinubu cannot be Nigeria’s President is before the Court of Appeal.

The motion is seeking a stoppage of the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President on May 29, 2023.

The new suit marked CA/CV/259/2023 was instituted by one of the Presidential candidates in the 2019 Presidential election and constitutional lawyer, Ambrose Albert Owuru and his political party, Hope Democratic Party (HDP).

Owuru is praying the Court to prohibit President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), from inaugurating the President-elect on May 29, 2023.

The plaintaiff specifically wants Buhari, AGF and INEC stopped from taking any further steps on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as winner.

Owuru’s grounds for filing the suit  against the inauguration of Tinubu or anybody else as successor to Buhari include that he is the constitutionally adjudged winner of the 2019 election and has not spent his tenure as required by law.

He added that President Buhari is usurping his tenure of office since 2019 as a result of the fact that the Supreme Court has not determined his petition filed in 2019 in which he challenged the purported declaration of Buhari as the winner of the election.

In the motion on notice marked CA/CV/259/2023 filled at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, Owuru 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.

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

He listed President Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 3rd respondents in the motion on notice.

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

The motion was supported with an 8-paragraph affidavit praying the Court for expeditious hearing before the inauguration of Tinubu.

It is supported with an 8-paragraph affidavit praying the Court 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, Abuja, expressed apprehension that Owuru’s suit against Buhari would be rendered nugatory unless given quick hearing.

The affidavit reads in part; “That the applicant (Owuru) is the adjudged 1st in time constitutional winner of the February 16, 2019 presidential election reserves the right of first refusal over any later presidential election returns in the face of usurpation of adjudged acquired constitutional rights”.

The Court of Appeal is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.