Abuja court fixes Jan 30 for judgment in suit seeking Buhari’s removal from office

Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday fixed January 30 next year for judgment in a suit seeking to remove President Muhammadu Buhari from office and to also stop the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election.

The Judge fixed the judgment date following the adoption of final addresses by President Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the plaintiff, Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru.

At Friday’s proceedings, Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, a Presidential candidate in the 2019 election on the platform of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), asked the Federal High Court to stop INEC from conducting the 2023 presidential election.

He made the call on the grounds that he won the 2019 Presidential election and that his tenure is being usurped by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He prayed the court to remove Buhari and declare him (Owuru) the authentic President and that Buhari should be compelled to refund all monies he collected as salaries, emoluments and security votes.

Owuru, a British-trained constitutional lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984 also asked the court to order his inauguration for a four-year tenure of office upon removal of Buhari from office.

The senior lawyer appeared for himself and Hope Democratic Party HDP and also canvassed the final arguments.

Owuru and HDP had sued President Buhari and two others seeking a court order to declare him the winner of the 2019 presidential election.

He specifically claimed that he won a referendum conducted in 2019 and that President Buhari had been usurping his tenure since then.

The politician further claimed that his suit earlier lodged at the Supreme Court was unjustly dismissed following his absence in the Apex Court occasioned by discrepancies in the hearing dates conveyed to him.