By Kenneth Atavti
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday dismissed a suit by a former presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru against the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 presidential election.
The suit seeking outright sack of President Buhari was thrown out by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo on three major grounds.
Parts of the grounds are that the suit constituted a gross abuse of court process, statute barred and was an affront to the Supremacy of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Besides, Justice Ekwo held that the suit was baseless, frivolous, irritating and vexatious in the entirety.
Owuru had in the suit applied for an order of court to declare the presidential seat vacant and swear him in as the authentic winner of that election.
Among others, the Presidential candidate wants the court to determine the legality or otherwise of the INEC’S decision in 2019 during which it shifted the election from February 16 to March 23, 2019.
He claimed that INEC acted against the Constitution in the illegal and unlawful ways and manners the presidential poll was shifted and that declaration of Mohammadu Buhari as winner of the unlawful act should be declared null and void and of no effect.
Owuru, a British-trained constitutional lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984 however asked the Federal High Court to declare him as winner of the poll.
The ground of his claim was predicated on the fact that the petition he lodged against Buhari has not been adjudicated upon by the Supreme Court as required by law.
The politician claimed that his petition at the Supreme Court was unjustly dismissed following his absence in the Apex Court due to discrepancies in the hearing dates conveyed to him.
He therefore prayed the court to remove Buhari and declare him (Owuru) the authentic President and that Buhari should be compelled to refund all monies he collected as salaries, emoluments and security votes.
The HDP Presidential candidate also asked the court to order his inauguration for a four-year tenure of office upon removal of Buhari from office and that the Federal High Court should stop INEC from conducting the 2023 presidential election.
Claiming that his tenure is being usurped by President Buhari, the plaintiff prayed that the court should compel Buhari to refund all monies he collected as salaries, emoluments and security votes.
