Supreme Court Strikes out HDP's Suit against Buhari

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck out the appeal of candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Owuru, against the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The appeal was struck out on the grounds that Owuru and his party engaged in gross abuse of court processes by filing two notices of appeal contrary to the provisions of the law.

Owuru and HDP had approached the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which dismissed their petition against Buhari's election.

But the apex court, in its ruling, struck out the appeal for lacking in merit and an abuse of court process.

The apex court, in striking out the suit further held that the failure of the appellants to appeal the August 22 ruling of the tribunal which had struck out their petition, for being incompetent,  was fatal to their appeal.

In the unanimous decision read by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, the five-member panel of Justices of the Supreme Court upheld the objection raised by respondents in the suit and subsequently dismissed the appeal.

Owuru and HDP,  in a notice of appeal filed on August 28 by their counsel, Chukwunonyerem Njoku, sought the 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 the alleged illegal postponement from  February 16 to 23.

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 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.

When the matter was called, President Buhari's lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), informed the court of a notice of preliminary objection he filed against the appeal.

Olanipekun urged the court to strike out the appeal on the grounds of jurisdiction, adding that there was no proper appeal in the real sense of it before the court.

According to him, the court cannot countenance two notices of appeal on the same judgment.

He also submitted the appellants did not file any objection to their notice of preliminary objection.

Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Yunus Usman (SAN), on his part, said though the second respondent did not file an objection to the appeal, it, however, said he raised an objection to the appeal in his respondent's brief of argument filed on September 13.

In his own notice of preliminary objection filed on September 16, counsel to the APC, Tunde  Fagbemi (SAN) insisted that the appellants attempted to build their appeal on nothing since the decision of the tribunal that they have no competent Petition known to the law was not challenged.