Suit seeking to stop Tinubu’s swearing-in fixed for hearing today

According to a court ruling, the Court of Appeal in Abuja will hear a new petition today trying to prevent the inauguration of President-elect Bola Tinubu on May 29.

Ambrose Owuru, the petitioner, filed the case to the Appellate Court after it was dismissed by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on January 30, 2023.

The suit marked CA/ABJ/CV/259/2023 is instituted by the presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Owuru and his party, Hope Democratic Party.

The plaintiff is praying the court to prohibit the president, Major Gen.(Rtd) Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Independent National Electoral Commission from inaugurating the president-elect on May 29.

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.

Soon after joining Tinubu in the suit on the ground that he has an interest that could be jeopardized, the court ordered that Buhari, AGF, INEC and Tinubu as 1st to 4th respondents should file their Respondent Briefs and serve the appellants by 10 am this morning.

It also issued an order that the appellants should file their reply brief and serve the respondents by noon today.

Subsequently, the court fixed the suit for hearing by 3 pm also today.