The Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking the removal of President Bola Tinubu from office. The suit, filed by Ambrose Owuru, the 2019 Hope Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, accused Tinubu of links to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and involvement in a drug-related case.
In a unanimous ruling by a five-member panel led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the apex court declared the suit frivolous and imposed a fine of N5 million on Owuru. The court also issued a warning to the Supreme Court Registry not to accept any further frivolous lawsuits from him.
Owuru’s case, which was filed directly with the Supreme Court, alleged that President Tinubu was an agent of the CIA, making him unfit to hold the presidency. He also claimed that Tinubu had forfeited $460,000 to the U.S. government in a drug-related case and urged the court to invoke Section 157 of the 1999 Constitution to remove Tinubu from office, arguing that he was under foreign control.
Owuru, whose political party, the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), had been de-registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), included former President Muhammadu Buhari as a defendant in the case, which was registered as SC/CV/667/2023.
During Monday’s hearing, Owuru represented himself in court, donning a lawyer’s wig and gown. This lawsuit followed a previous instance in which the Court of Appeal in Abuja fined Owuru N40 million in May 2023 for filing a “frivolous” case to prevent Tinubu’s inauguration as president. In that case, Owuru had also attempted to block the swearing-in of Buhari in 2019.
Owuru had claimed that INEC manipulated the 2019 presidential election by postponing the vote, originally set for February 16, to February 23. He argued that prior to the postponement, he had won a referendum monitored by local and foreign organizations, with over 50 million votes, surpassing the vote count of other presidential candidates, including Buhari. Owuru alleged that Buhari’s presidency was illegitimate, claiming that Buhari hijacked his mandate and served an illegal eight-year term.
In his lawsuit, Owuru sought to have Tinubu disqualified and declared unfit for the presidency, urging the Supreme Court to name him as president and order his immediate inauguration to reclaim the mandate he believed was stolen from him. The suit also named the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Justice, and INEC as defendants.
