The Supreme Court, on Monday, dismissed a suit filed by Chief Ambrose Owuru, seeking the removal of President Bola Tinubu from office, and imposed a fine of N5 million against the plaintiff for what it described as a frivolous case.
In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of justices, led by Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, criticized Owuru, the 2019 presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), for repeatedly bringing up baseless claims.
The court warned its Registry against accepting any further originating summons from him.
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Owuru, who personally argued his case before the court, alleged that Tinubu was unfit to hold office, claiming he was an “active agent” of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and had forfeited $460,000 in a drug-related case in the USA. He urged the court to invoke Section 157 of the 1999 Constitution to disqualify Tinubu.
The plaintiff, who wore his lawyer’s wig and gown, was ordered to remove them before addressing the court. The justices questioned why Owuru refiled a case that had been dismissed three previous times. Justice Abba-Aji chastised Owuru for his conduct, saying it was unbecoming of a lawyer with over 40 years of legal experience.
Besides fining Owuru, the panel also threatened to report him to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) for possible sanctions.
Owuru had also named former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants in the case. He argued that he was the rightful winner of the 2019 presidential election and claimed his mandate was hijacked.
The British-trained lawyer alleged that the election was manipulated following its postponement from February 16 to February 23, 2019. He insisted he won a referendum monitored by local and foreign observers, where he claimed to have secured over 50 million votes.
The court, however, found no merit in his claims. This ruling follows a similar decision by the Court of Appeal on May 25, 2023, which fined Owuru N40 million for filing a suit to stop Tinubu’s inauguration.
The Supreme Court reiterated its stand on discouraging frivolous lawsuits, stating that Owuru’s repeated actions amounted to an abuse of the judicial process.
