An order from the court states that the Court of Appeal in Abuja will hear a new suit today that seeks to prevent the inauguration of President-elect Bola Tinubu on May 29. The suit is seeking to stop the inauguration.
After the petitioner, Ambrose Owuru, had their case dismissed by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on January 30, 2023, they appealed the decision by moving the case to the Appellate Court.
Owuru, a candidate for president in the 2019 presidential election, and the Hope Democratic Party, the candidate’s political party, have filed the lawsuit with the citation CA/ABJ/CV/259/2023.
The plaintiff is asking the court to prevent the current president, Major General (Retired) Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the Attorney General of the Federation and the Independent National Electoral Commission, from inaugurating the president-elect on May 29.
He wants the respondents to be prevented from taking any additional actions regarding the 2023 presidential election that resulted in Tinubu being declared the winner.
Owuru, who asserts that he was the legitimate winner of the presidential election in 2019, filed a lawsuit challenging Tinubu’s inauguration or the inauguration of anyone else as Buhari’s successor on the basis that he won the 2019 election but has not spent his year in office in accordance with the requirements of the law.
He maintained that Buhari has been usurping his tenure in office since 2019, and the reason he maintained this was because the Supreme Court has not decided on the petition he filed in 2019 challenging the declaration of Buhari as the election winner. The petition was filed in 2019.
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The court heard a joint motion by Tinubu on May 18, and Wole Olanipekun SAN Chambers presented their argument in support of the motion.
Tinubu’s request for the court to join him as a respondent in the case against Buhari and INEC was granted, and the court’s decision was brief.
As soon as Tinubu was added to the lawsuit on the basis that he has an interest that could be jeopardized, the court ordered that Buhari, the AGF, INEC, and Tinubu should file their Respondent Briefs and serve the appellants by 10 a.m. today. Tinubu was added to the suit on the basis that he has an interest that could be jeopardized.
Additionally, it issued an order requiring the appellants to file their rebuttal brief and serve it on the respondents before today’s noon deadline.
Following that, the court scheduled a hearing for the case for today at 3 o’clock as well.
