Supreme Court fines ex-presidential candidate N5m over frivolous appeal against Tinubu

Mr Owuru’s appeal was filed against a May 2023 decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissing his case, which he weaved from his grievances against the previous 2019 presidential election.

The Supreme Court, on Monday, awarded a N5 million fine against Ambrose Owuru, a former presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections, for filing a “frivolous and vexatious” suit against President Bola Tinubu.

Delivering judgement, a five-member panel of justices also ordered the court registry not to accept any frivolous suit from Mr Owuru, known for strange presidential election litigation henceforth.

Mr Owuru’s appeal was filed against a May 2023 decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissing his case, which he weaved from his grievances against the previous 2019 presidential election.

The Court of Appeal’s decision delivered on 25 May 2023, four days before Mr Tinubu’s inauguration, described the case as strange, frivolous and irritating.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Owuru stood to argue his own case wearing his wig and gown on Monday.

He was, however, ordered out of the Bar and directed to remove his wig and gown before he could be allowed to address the court.

Upon complying with the orders, Mr Owuru was asked why he came before the court again, having had his suits dismissed three times.

Although he tried unsuccessfully to convince the court to grant him adequate audience, his explanations were rejected as unconvincing.

As he insisted on being heard, the court threatened to refer him to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).

Ms Aba-Aji, in a ruling, held that Mr Owuru’s conduct was unbecoming of a lawyer of over 40 years a

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

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

The senior lawyer said that the direction of the instant suit could not be understood because of the poor way and manner it was couched by the applicant.

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

The judge consequently dismissed the suit and awarded N5 million against him and in favour of Mr Tinubu.

In his response, a professor of law, Taiwo Osipitan, a SAN, who was also in court, assured that the conduct of the former presidential candidate would be referred to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Suit

Mr Owuru sought the removal of Mr Tinubu from office in light of certain new revelations.

He said in the suit, which started at the Federal High Court last year, that Mr Tinubu was not qualified to be Nigerian president over certain revelation that he previously acted as an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

He also urged the court to disqualify President Tinubu on account of forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over his alleged involvement in drug trafficking-related offences.

Although he was not a presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Mr Owuru urged the court to remove President Tinubu from office and order his immediate inauguration to reclaim his mandate allegedly usurped from him in 2019.

Mr Owuru, a lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982, maintained that he won the 2019 presidential poll but that his mandate was unlawfully taken by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to him, his suit challenging the 2019 election result was dismissed by the Supreme Court due to a procedural mix-up, leaving his claims unaddressed.

He urged the court to grant his prayers by invoking section 157 of the Nigerian constitution to oust President Tinubu from office on account of being under the control of foreign authorities.

He stated that granting his application “will protect and save Nigeria from looming selloff of the entire country’s wealth and political health in the light of the new revelations of the nature of 4th Respondent (Mr Tinubu’s) constitutional disqualification to hold office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

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

Owuru’s trajectory of ‘frivolous’ presidential election litigation

Mr Owuru has customarily instituted presidential litigation to seek longshot prayers since at least after the 2015 presidential election.

In 2017, he filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja to seek an order shortening the four-year tenure of the then President Buhari.

He argued in the suit that during the campaigns for the 2015 presidential election, Mr Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), surpassed the N1 billion campaign expenses limit set by the Electoral Act.

He urged the court to dissolve the Federal Executive Council (FEC) led by Mr Buhari to make way for any early fresh election.

Mr Owuru also urged the court to order the constitution of an all-inclusive government of national unity to be headed by him, “being the most progressive, revolutionary and visionary candidate” in the 2015 presidential election pending the conduct of another election by INEC.

The suit failed.

Again, after Mr Buhari was declared the winner of the 2019 presidential election, Mr Owuru asked the presidential election petition court to nullify the result and declare him the winner. He based his prayer on the outcome of a certain “referendum” held on 16 February 2019 from which he claimed to have allegedly emerged as the validly elected Nigerian president with 50 million votes.

He argued in the suit that the rescheduling of the presidential election from 16 February 2019 to 23 February 2019 was done “without any recognisable presence or existence and or compliance with prescribed statutory conditions to do so.”

According to him, the rescheduling implied that the 2019 presidential election was “abandoned, self-sabotaged and relinquished”, paving the way “for the people’s controlled affirmative referendum election” validating him as the elected president. Such a referendum is not known to Nigerian laws and was not known to have been held anywhere.

While the hearing was underway, Mr Owuru applied to the court to stop Mr Buhari’s inauguration.

The court dismissed the application and eventually the suit itself.

He appealed against the decision at the Supreme Court.

Dismissing the appeal in October 2019, the Supreme Court described it as frivolous and an abuse of court process.

After Mr Tinubu was announced the winner of the 2023 presidential election, Mr Owuru spun another suit out of the facts of his 2019 case.

In the suit, which he filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Mr Owuru insisted that he won the 2019 presidential poll but was unjustly deprived of his victory.

He joined then President Buhari, the Attorney-General of the Federation, INEC and Mr Tinubu, as the respondents.

He lost the case, but defiantly went on appeal at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the case and awarded a heavy cost against him in a unanimous decision  delivered on 25 May 2023.

The court said that the appeal was a gross abuse of the court process.

It said Mr Owuru’s complaint against the 2019 presidential election was not only strange but uncalled for, as his grievances had been pursued up to Supreme Court and was dismissed for want of merit.

The court ruled that Mr Owuru’s attempt to resuscitate his dead case could set the lower court on a collision course against the Supreme Court which had made a final pronouncement on it.

It said it was therefore an irritating suit deliberately packaged to provoke the respondents.

It therefore ordered him to pay a N10 million fine to each of the four respondents – Mr Buhari, the AGF, INEC and Mr Tinubu. The fine totalled N40 million.

It was this decision Mr Owuru challenged at the Supreme Court, which dismissed his appeal on Monday.