Man fined N5m for Tinubu’s removal…here’s what to know
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The Supreme Court on Monday fined Chief Albert Owuru the sum of five million naira for bringing a “frivolous” suit before the court.
The lawsuit filed by the 2019 Hope Democratic Party (HDP) candidate , Albert Owuru, sought the removal of Tinubu from office based on alleged Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and drug involvement.
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The apex court dismissed his case and warned the registry of the Supreme Court not to accept any frivolous originating summons from the plaintiff again.
What to Know About Owuru’s Lawsuit
The lawsuit was marked SC/CV/667/2023. It contains a case to sack Tinubu on two major grounds.
One is on the ground of ‘Lis Pendens,’ which has rendered the 2023 presidential election, as well as its outcome, null and void. On this doctrine, Owuru claimed that it was not yet the turn of Tinubu to occupy the office of president of Nigeria.
His second point against Tinubu hinged on Tinubu’s forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over an alleged drug trafficking-related offence.
Owuru claimed that since Tinubu is an active part of the CIA, he’s under foreign influence and doesn’t qualify to be the president of Nigeria.
He further asked the court to remove Tinubu and instate Owuru as the president of the federation.
The apex court’s five-member panel of justices, led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, on Monday held that the suit was incompetent and amounted to a waste of the court’s precious time. They unanimously agreed that Chief Owuru be fined the sum of N5 million.
This Day also reported that on March 7, 2019, Chief Owuru had filed a suit against former President Muhammadu Buhari seeking the nullification of the election result on three grounds: that they were unlawfully excluded in the poll; that the February 23 poll was illegal, unconstitutional, and a nullity because INEC has no power to shift the poll; and that a referendum conducted on February 16 produced him as the winner.
The presidential election tribunal of 2019 and the Supreme Court dismissed the petition and appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
The apex court condemned his action and held that his conduct was unbecoming of the 40 years of lawyer he claimed to be.
Is Chief Owuru chasing clout, or does he truly have a case but didn’t put it right?
