The Supreme Court, Abuja, has fined Ambrose Albert Owuru, former presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 election, for filing a “frivolous” suit seeking the removal of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from office.
Owuru was fined N5m.
In a ruling on Monday, the five-member panel of the apex court issued the order against Owuru dismissing his suit and ordered its registry not to accept any frivolous originating summons from him again.
At Monday’s proceedings, Owuru, who claimed to be a lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984, was reprimanded by the panel for filling the suit despite having dismissed three similar suits filed by him.
The plaintiff tried to convince the apex court to grant him audience but the court rejected his arguments.
Delivering his ruling on behalf of the panel, Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji held that Owuru’s conduct was unbecoming of a lawyer of over 40 years, as he claimed to be.
The Court subsequently dismissed his suit and ordered him to pay Tinubu the sum of N5m.
Oworu had prayed the court to sack Tinubu on two major grounds of alleged non-qualification to hold office as Nigeria’s president and alleged usurpation of the same office against the law of the country.
The suit marked SC/CV/667/2023 had former President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Tinubu as 1st to 4th defendants, respectively.
Owuru, a British-trained lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982, insisted that he won the 2019 presidential poll but that his tenure was allegedly usurped by Buhari for eight years, adding that the Supreme Court could not restore his mandate due to a mix-up in the hearing dates.
He added that President Tinubu is an active agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which allegedly makes him unfit to occupy the presidential seat.
Specifically, he prayed the Supreme Court to invoke section 157 of the 1999 Constitution to oust Tinubu from office on account of being under the control of foreign authorities.
He also prayed the apex court to disqualify Tinubu on account of forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over alleged involvement in drug trafficking-related offences.
Consequently, he argued that upon the disqualification of Tinubu for being unfit to hold the top job, the apex court should declare him president and order his immediate inauguration to enable him to reclaim his alleged usurped mandate.
Recall that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had on May 25, 2023, imposed a N40m fine on Owuru for filling a “frivolous” suit to stop Tinubu from being sworn in as president.