S’Court fines Owuru N5m for frivolous suit against Tinubu

The Supreme Court, yesterday, imposed a N5 million fine on a former presidential candidate, Ambrose Albert Owuru, for harassing President Bola Tinubu with a frivolous and vexatious suit.

Owuru, who contested the 2019 presidential election against former President Muhammadu Buhari on the platform of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), was ordered to pay the N5 million to Tinubu.

Justice Uwani Aba-Aji issued the order against the former presidential candidate while dismissing his fresh suit praying for the removal of Tinubu as Nigeria’s President.

Apart from the N5 million fine, the apex court ordered its Registry not to accept any frivolous originating summons from Owuru again.

At yesterday’s proceedings, Owuru, a British-trained lawyer, who was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982, sought to argue his case wearing his wig and gown. But he was ordered out and directed to remove his wig and gown before he could be allowed to argue his case.

Upon complying with the orders, Owuru was asked why he came before the court again, having had his suits dismissed three times. Although he tried unsuccessfully to convince the apex court to grant him adequate audience, his explanations were rejected as unconvincing.

Following his insistence, 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.

In the end, the court dismissed his suit and ordered him to pay Tinubu N5 million. He was also slammed for taking the Supreme Court for a ride, wasting its precious time with baseless suits and gross abuse of 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 manner the applicant packaged it.

Olanipekun also said it was difficult for him to apologise to the court on behalf of Owuru because the applicant’s conduct had become something unbearable in the law profession.

A professor of Law, Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), 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, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and others, for filing a suit against them.

The new suit, marked SC/CV/667/2023, prayed the apex court to sack Tinubu for 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, INEC and Tinubu as 1st to 4th defendants, respectively.

Owuru, who insisted that he won the 2019 presidential election, alleged that his tenure was usurped by Buhari.

He claimed that his suit at the Supreme Court, which would have kicked Buhari out of office, was technically jettisoned by the apex court due to a mix-up in the hearing dates.

On the other hand, he prayed the apex court to disqualify Tinubu on account of forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over alleged involvement in drug trafficking-related offence.

Aside the alleged forfeiture of the sum in relation to drug trafficking, the former presidential candidate also accused Tinubu of being an active agent of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a position, he said, prohibits Tinubu from holding the office of the President of Nigeria.

Specifically, he prayed the Supreme Court to invoke section 157 of the 1999 Constitution to oust Tinubu from office on account of being under the control of foreign authorities.

Upon his declaration as winner of the 2019 presidential poll and disqualification of Tinubu for not being qualified to hold the office of Nigeria’s president, Owuru is asking the Supreme Court to pronounce him as Nigeria’s President and as well order his immediate inauguration to reclaim his usurped mandate

It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal once imposed a fine of N40 million on Owuru, to be paid to Tinubu, INEC and others, for filing a suit against them. However, it could not ascertain if the fine had been paid before Owuru filed the new suit.