The Supreme Court of Nigeria has rejected a lawsuit aimed at ousting President Bola Tinubu from office. The case was brought by Ambrose Owuru, who was the presidential candidate for the Hope Democratic Party in the 2019 elections, and was based on allegations concerning the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and drug-related issues.
In a unanimous ruling by a five-member panel led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the court ruled the lawsuit as frivolous and imposed a fine of N5 million on Owuru. The court also cautioned the Registry against accepting any future frivolous filings from him.
Owuru’s claims included accusations that President Tinubu is an agent of the CIA, which he argued disqualifies him from holding the presidency. Furthermore, he alleged that Tinubu had forfeited $460,000 to the U.S. government in connection with a drug case, asking the court to disqualify Tinubu under Section 157 of the 1999 Constitution due to alleged foreign influence.
The suit, designated SC/CV/667/2023, also named former President Muhammadu Buhari as a defendant. During the hearing, Owuru represented himself, appearing in court attire.
This was not Owuru’s first legal challenge; earlier, on May 25, 2023, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had imposed a N40 million fine on him for filing a similar “frivolous” lawsuit aimed at stopping Tinubu’s inauguration as president. Owuru had previously attempted to prevent Buhari from taking office, claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) facilitated electoral manipulation in the 2019 elections.
He argued that the election, initially scheduled for February 16, 2019, was postponed by INEC just hours before voting commenced, leading to a new election date of February 23, 2019. Owuru claimed he had won a referendum conducted prior to the election, allegedly securing over 50 million votes.
He contended that Buhari unlawfully seized his mandate, which he argued should lead to Tinubu’s disqualification and his own declaration as president, along with an immediate inauguration to reclaim his purportedly usurped mandate.
In addition to Tinubu and Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Justice, and INEC were also named as defendants in the case.