S'COURT IMPOSES N5 MILLION FINE ON EX-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OVER FRIVOLOUS SUITS AGAINST TINUBU

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A former presidential candidate, Ambrose Owuru, was fined N5 million by the Supreme Court for bothering President Bola Tinubu with pointless and vexatious lawsuits.

Owuru was ordered to provide Tinubu N5 million. Owuru ran against former President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP).

While dismissing the former presidential candidate’s new lawsuit, Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji issued the order against him, pleading for Tinubu to be removed as Nigeria’s president.

In addition to the N5 million punishment, the supreme court directed its registry to refrain from accepting any summonses from Owuru that originate from spurious suits in the future.

Wearing his wig and gown, Owuru attempted to make his case during the day’s proceedings, claiming to be a lawyer who had been called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984.

Before he could present his case, he was told to leave the bar and take off his gown and wig.

Owuru was asked why he appeared in court once more after his claims were dismissed three times after he complied with the rulings.

He made a vain attempt to persuade the Apex Court to give him a sufficient audience, but his arguments were dismissed as unpersuasive.

Following his recalcitrant, the court threatened to refer him to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee LPDC.

Justice Aba-Aji ruled that Owuru’s conduct was unbecoming of a lawyer of over 40 years, as he claimed to be.

In the end, the Court dismissed his suit and ordered him to pay Tinubu N5 million.

The court lambasted him for taking the Supreme Court for a ride, wasting its precious time with baseless suits and grossly abusing court processes.

Before the suit was thrown out, Bode Olanipekun SAN who appeared for President Tinubu had drawn the attention of the court to several cases of Owuru that were dismissed on account of frivolity.

He added that the direction of the fresh suit could not be understood because of the poor ways and manners it was couched by the applicant.

Olanipekun SAN also said that it was difficult for him to apologize to the court on behalf of Owuru because the conduct of the applicant had become something unbearable in the practice of the law profession.

In his own response, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Taiwo Osipitan assured that the conduct of the former presidential candidate would be referred to the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA.

The Court of Appeal had previously imposed a fine of N40 million on Owuru, to be paid to Tinubu, INEC, and others, for filing a suit against them.

The new suit prayed the Apex Court to sack Tinubu on two major grounds: alleged non-qualification to hold office as Nigeria’s President and alleged usurpation of the office in contravention of the law.

Defendants in the suit were former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Tinubu as 1st to 4th defendants, respectively.

He claimed that his suit at the Supreme Court, which would have removed Buhari from office, was technically jettisoned by the Apex Court due to a mix-up in hearing dates.

He also prayed the Apex Court to disqualify Tinubu on account of the forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over an alleged drug trafficking-related offence.

Besides the alleged forfeiture, Owuru accused Tinubu of being an active agent of the CIA, a position he claimed disqualified Tinubu from holding the office of President of Nigeria.

Specifically, Owuru prayed the Supreme Court to invoke Section 157 of the 1999 Constitution to remove Tinubu from office on the grounds of being under the control of foreign authorities.

He also asked the Supreme Court to declare him Nigeria’s President and order his immediate inauguration to reclaim his alleged usurped mandate.