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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been dragged before the Supreme Court for allegedly unlawfully presenting himself for inauguration as President, despite a pending legal action against the conduct of the 2023 presidential poll, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports.
Citing the doctrine of lis pendens, a presidential candidate in the 2019 general election, Albert Ambrose Owuru, is asking the apex court to nullify the inauguration of Tinubu as winner of the 2023 presidential poll.
Owuru, a constitutional lawyer, contends that the presidential election, which produced Tinubu, was an exercise in futility and illegal self-help, given his yet-to-be-determined suit against Tinubu and others at the Supreme Court.
The pending Supreme Court suit (No. SC/667/2023) has A.A. Owuru and Hope Democratic Party (HDP) as appellants while respondents are former President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation, Independent National Electoral Commission, and Tinubu.
Owuru is arguing that Tinubu’s declaration as President by INEC is an affront to the Supreme Court and established law by reason of lis pendens. He added that since Tinubu is a party in the pending suit before the apex court, he ought not to have presented himself for inauguration, in respect of any presidential poll.
Owuru contested the 2019 presidential election on the platform of HDP against former President Buhari and claimed to be adjudged winner of the poll, against the declaration of Buhari by INEC.
His suit seeking an order of court to declare him the adjudged and constitutional winner of the 2019 election, and currently pending before the Supreme Court, was on May 18, this year, voluntarily joined by Tinubu as an interested party.
In a fresh motion on notice served on Tinubu through the chambers of Wole Olanipekun, the ex-presidential cadidate is also praying the Supreme Court for an order restraining the respondents and particularly Tinubu from further operating the federation account, pending the determination and resolution of the constitutional questions against the 2023 election.
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