Abuja Court dismisses application to stop Buhari's inauguration

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed an ex-parte application seeking to stop the swearing-in of President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.

In a ‎ruling on an ex-parte motion brought by a civil society organisation, the Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative, Justice Mohammed described the application as "self-induced urgency", owing to the plaintiff's failure to challenge Buhari's emergence as president-elect after two months of the presidential election.

He said: "In law, an ex-parte application seeking an order of injunction presupposes the existence of a real case of urgency not self-induced urgency.

"Motion ex-parte dated and filed on 26 of May, is a clear case of self-induced urgency.

"This court is therefore of the view that the plaintiff applicant's motion dated and filed on May 26 is devoid of any merit and the same is accordingly dismissed", Justice Mohammed declared.

He adjourned the suit till June 26 for further mention.

The court also ordered the applicant to serve all originating processes and hearing notice on the defendants.

It will be recalled that the applicant, the Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative had applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed from swearing the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari as president on May 29.

In a suit filed by its lawyer, Mr Philip Ekpo, the group said that Buhari did not meet the qualification enshrined in the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act to have contested the position of the president of Nigeria at the 2015 general elections.

Even though Thursday's application was ex-parte, Chief Lateef Fagbemi , SAN leading two other Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Chief Akin Olujimi and Kola Awodein announced memorandum of conditional appearance for Mohammadu Buhari.

Credit: Tobi Soniyi/ThisDay