A constitutional crisis is imminent as a former presidential candidate has instituted a motion on notice, seeking to stop the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s 16th Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on May 29.
Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the February 25 election.
He returned to Nigeria from Europe on Monday, in preparation for his swearing-in.
Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, a lawyer and presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 election, in a suit marked CA/CV/259/2023, is praying the Court of Appeal in Abuja to prohibit President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from inaugurating the President- elect on May 29.
Owuru was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982.
He wants Buhari, AGF and INEC stopped from taking any further steps on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as winner.
Owuru predicated his grouse against inauguration of Tinubu or anybody else as successor to Buhari on the ground that he is the constitutionally-adjudged winner of the 2019 election and has not spent his tenure as required by law.
Among others, Owuru insisted 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 purported declaration of Buhari as the election winner.
In his motion on notice marked CA/CV/259/2023 just filed at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, Owuru applied for “An order of prohibitory injunction compelling Buhari, AGF and INEC, their servants, agents and privies to preserve and give due cognizance and abstain from any further undertaking or engaging in any act of usurpation of adjudged acquired Constitutional rights and mandate as winner of the 2019 presidential election.
He also applied for another order directing and placing on notice that any form of handover inauguration, organised and superintended by Buhari on May 29, 2023 outside his adjudged winner of the 2019 presidential election, subject of the pending appeal remains and is viewed as an “interim place holder” administration arranged pending the hearing and determination of his substantive appeal on constitutional interpretation thereof.
Listed as respondents in the motion on notice are Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 3rd respectfully.
The motion on notice filed on his behalf by Mr Odion Peter has been served on Buhari and AGF through their counsel, Mrs Maimuna Lami Ashiru, of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja while that of INEC was served through the Head of Legal Department and Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN, Mr S. O Ibrahim.
The motion is supported with eight-paragraph affidavit praying the Court of Appeal for expeditious hearing before the inauguration of Tinubu.
The affidavit deposed to by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Adebayo Anafowode, and filed at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, expressed apprehension that Owuru’s suit against Buhari would be rendered nugatory unless given quick hearing.
Part of the affidavit read “That the applicant (Owuru), adjudged first in time constitutional winner of the February 16, 2019 presidential election, reserves the right of first refusal over any later presidential election returns in the face of usurpation of adjudged acquired constitutional rights”.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit by the Court of Appeal.