A’Court fines ex-presidential candidate N40m for challenging Tinubu’s inauguration

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, has ordered the former presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Ambrose Owuru, to pay a fine of N40 million for filing a suit seeking to stop the inauguration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on May 29.

The Appeal Court ordered Owuru to pay the fine of N10 million each to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Tinubu who are 1st to 4th defendants in the suit.

Delivering judgement on behalf of a three-member panel, Justice Jamil Tukur held that the ex-presidential candidate embarked on gross abuse of court process by filing frivolous, vexatious, and irritating suit to provoke the respondents.

The panel held that the grievances of Owuru against the 2019 presidential election were not only strange but uncalled for.

It added that the grievances had been pursued up to Supreme Court and were dismissed for want of merit.

Justice Tukur said the action of Owuru to resuscitate the case that died since 2019 at the Supreme Court was aimed at making the lower courts to go on collision course with supremacy of the apex court.

Owuru, who instituted the suit marked CA/CV/259/2023, prayed the court to stop President Buhari and the AGF from inaugurating the 2023 President-elect on May 29.

Owuru, who participated in the 2019 presidential poll on the platform of the HDP, wants Buhari, AGF, and INEC stopped from taking any further steps on the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as winner.

He claimed to be adjudged Constitutional winner of the 2019 presidential election predicated his grouse against the 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 President 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.

Owuru, therefore, 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.”

The Star