The Court of Appeal in Abuja will hear today the fresh lawsuit seeking to halt Bola Tinubu’s inauguration as president-elect on May 29.
On January 30, 2023, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the petition, and Ambrose Owuru moved the case to the Appellate Court.
The CA/ABJ/CV/259/2023 lawsuit was filed by Owuru, a contender for president in the 2019 election, and his party, Hope Democratic Party.
In order to prevent President Muhammadu Buhari, the attorney general of the federation, and the Independent National Electoral Commission from inaugurating the president-elect on May 29, the plaintiff is asking the court to issue an injunction.
He wants the respondents stopped from taking any further steps on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as the winner.
Owuru who claims to have been the valid winner of the 2019 presidential election based his suit against Tinubu’s inauguration or anybody else as successor to Buhari on the ground that he won the 2019 election and has not spent his year tenure as required by law.
He maintained that 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 declaration of Buhari as the election winner.
On May 18, the court heard a joint motion by Tinubu which was argued by Wole Olanipekun SAN Chambers.
In a brief ruling, the court granted Tinubu’s request and joined him as 4th respondent along with Buhari and INEC.
The court instructed Buhari, AGF, INEC, and Tinubu as the first through fourth respondents to file their Respondent Briefs and serve the appellants by 10 am this morning. Tinubu was recently added to the lawsuit on the grounds that he had an interest that could be jeopardised.
It also issued a directive directing the appellants to serve the respondents and submit their reply brief by today at noon.
The court then set today’s hearing in the case at 3 p.m.
