The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at removing President Bola Tinubu from office. The suit, filed by Ambrose Owuru, the presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 general election, was based on allegations linking Tinubu to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States and drug-related offences.
In a unanimous ruling delivered by a five-member panel of justices led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the court declared the suit frivolous and imposed a N5 million fine on Owuru. The court also warned the Registry not to accept any further frivolous claims from the plaintiff.
Owuru had filed the suit directly at the apex court, alleging that President Tinubu was an agent of the CIA, and thus unfit to hold the office of president. He further argued that Tinubu should be disqualified from office due to his forfeiture of $460,000 in a drug-related case in the United States. Owuru called on the Supreme Court to invoke Section 157 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to oust Tinubu, claiming the president was under the influence of foreign authorities.
In his suit, marked SC/CV/667/2023, Owuru also named former President Muhammadu Buhari as a defendant. Before he filed the case, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had deregistered Owuru’s political party, HDP.
When the case was heard on Monday, Owuru represented himself in court, wearing a lawyer’s wig and gown. The plaintiff has a history of filing legal actions aimed at challenging the outcomes of elections. Notably, in May 2023, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal imposed a N40 million fine on Owuru for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit in an attempt to prevent Tinubu from being sworn in as president.
Earlier, Owuru had also sought to prevent former President Buhari’s inauguration, alleging that INEC had assisted Buhari in manipulating the results of the 2019 presidential election. Owuru claimed that INEC’s last-minute postponement of the election, originally scheduled for 16th February 2019, gave Buhari an unfair advantage. He contended that he had won a referendum, monitored by both local and international observers, and secured over 50 million votes—surpassing the total votes of all other candidates, including Buhari.
Owuru, a British-trained lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982, claimed that Buhari’s presidency was illegal and that his mandate had been stolen. He argued that he was the rightful winner of the 2019 election and that upon Tinubu’s disqualification, the Supreme Court should declare him president and order his immediate inauguration to reclaim his alleged stolen mandate.
In addition to President Tinubu and Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Justice, and INEC were named as defendants in the case.
This dismissal represents the latest in a series of failed legal actions by Owuru against the Nigerian government, and the Supreme Court’s decision effectively clears the way for President Tinubu to continue his tenure in office.
