Owuru, also, asked to remove his wig and gown in Court by an angry Supreme Court
Serial litigant and one of the Presidential Candidates during 2023 election, Ambrose Albert Owuru, got more than he bargained for as the Supreme Court slammed a-N5m fine on him for harassing Tinubu with frivolous suits.
Owuru, who was in Court for the fourth time, was also brought on his knees by the Apex court as he was ordered out of the Bar and directed to remove his wig and gown before he could be allowed to argue his case.
The Supreme Court had on Monday dismissed the fresh suit filed by Owuru,
praying for the removal of President Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s President.
The Court accused him of harassing President Tinubu with a frivolous and vexatious suit.
Owuru contested the 2019 Presidential election against former President Muhammadu Buhari on the platform of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP).
Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji issued the order against the former Presidential Candidate while dismissing his fresh suit praying for the removal of Tinubu as Nigeria’s President.
Apart from the N5 million fine, the apex court ordered its Registry not to accept any frivolous originating summons from Owuru again.
At Monday’s proceedings, Owuru, who claimed to be a lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984, sought to argue his own case wearing his wig and gown.
Upon complying with the orders, Owuru was asked why he came before the court again, having had his suits dismissed three times.
Although he tried unsuccessfully to convince the Apex Court to grant him adequate audience, his explanations were rejected as unconvincing.
Following his recalcitrant attitude, the Court threatened to refer him to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).
Justice Aba-Aji ruled that Owuru’s conduct was unbecoming of a lawyer of over 40 years, as he claimed to be.
The Court lambasted him for taking Supreme Court for a ride, wasting its precious time with baseless suit and gross abuse of court processes.
Before the suit was thrown out, Bode Olanipekun, SAN, who appeared for President Tinubu had drawn the attention of the Court to several cases filed by Owuru that were dismissed on account of frivolity.
He added that the direction of the fresh suit could not be understood because of the poor ways and manner it was couched by the applicant.
Olanipekun also said that it was difficult for him to apologize to the Court on behalf of Owuru because the conduct of the applicant had become something unbearable in the practice of law profession.
In his own response, a Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Taiwo Osipitan assured that the conduct of the former Presidential Candidate would be referred to the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA).
The new suit, marked SC/CV/667/2023, prayed the Apex Court to sack Tinubu on two major grounds: alleged non-qualification to hold office as Nigeria’s President and alleged usurpation of the office in contravention of the law.
Defendants in the suit were former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Tinubu as 1st to 4th defendants, respectively.
Owuru, a British-trained lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984, insisted that he won the 2019 presidential Election, but alleged that his tenure was usurped by Buhari for eight years.
He claimed that his suit at the Supreme Court, which would have removed Buhari from office, was technically jettisoned by the Apex Court due to a mix-up in hearing dates.
He also prayed the Apex Court to disqualify Tinubu on account of the forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over an alleged drug trafficking-related offense.
Besides the alleged forfeiture, Owuru accused Tinubu of being an active agent of the CIA, a position he claimed disqualified Tinubu from holding the office of President of Nigeria.
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