Presidential Poll: HDP Accuses Buhari, Counsel of Evading Service

The 2019 presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Owuru, and his party have accused President Muhammadu Buhari and his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN),  of evading the service of Supreme Court processes in an appeal filed against the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in favour of Buhari.

The two appellants in the affidavit of service deposed to by the bailiff of the apex court, Ekoja Paul, alleged that the service of the court processes on president Buhari at the presidential villa was scuttled on three occasions by fully armed presidential guards.

The bailiff, in the affidavit dated September 4, claimed that he was at the presidential villa in Aso Rock to serve Buhari with a notice of appeal and record of appeal but that his efforts were aborted by the presidential security guards who allegedly denied him access to effect service on the president as required by law.

Paul, in a separate affidavit of service also claimed that he was at the chambers of Chief Wole Olanipekun, lead counsel to President Buhari, at number 6, Osaka Close, off Constantine Street, Wuse Zone 4, to serve notice of appeal and record of appeal but that the service of the Supreme Court processes was refused on the grounds that he has not been briefed to handle the case at the Supreme Court.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) who are second and third respondents in the appeal have accepted the service of the court processes.

In an affidavit marked SC/1110/2019 and deposed to by one Odion Peter Ebhoaya, a legal practitioner in Abuja, HDP and Owuru claimed to that they have been forced to file an exparte application on September 13 for formal substituted service on President Buhari and his lead counsel.

Owuru and HDP had in the appeal asked the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the election of President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the February 23 election.

The appellants who claimed to have won the February 23 presidential poll are challenging the tribunal's decision which dismissed their petition on August 22 on the grounds of jurisdiction.

In the appeal dated August 28 and filed same day on their behalf by Chukwunonyerem Njoku, the appellants want the Supreme Court to void the presidential election of February 23 on the grounds that it was unlawfully conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to illegal shift in the earlier February 16 date.

In the place of the election of February 23, the appellants prayed the apex court to uphold a referendum election said to have been conducted on February 16 and in which Owuru reportedly won with over 50 million voice votes by Nigerians.

The appeal which is predicated on 12 grounds also prayed the Supreme Court to order the swearing-in ceremony of Ambrose Owuru as the duly elected president of Nigeria based on the February 16 referendum.

Among, others, Owuru and HDP asserted that the presidential election petition tribunal erred in law when it declined statutory jurisdiction on the petition on the grounds that a referendum election is not known to law.

The tribunal had on August 22 dismissed the petition of the appellants on the grounds that their acclaimed referendum of February 16 was not conducted by INEC as required by law, while it held that the February 23 election was conducted by the electoral body in line with the provisions of the law.