The Supreme Court yesterday slammed N5 million fine on a former presidential candidate, Ambrose Albert Owuru, for harassing President Bola Tinubu with a frivolous and vexatious suit.
Owuru, who contested the 2019 presidential election against former President Muhammadu Buhari on the platform of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), was ordered to pay the N5 million to Tinubu.
Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji issued the order against the former presidential candidate while dismissing his fresh suit praying for the removal of Tinubu as Nigeria’s President.
Apart from the N5 million fine, the apex court ordered its Registry not to accept any frivolous originating summons from Owuru again.
At yesterday’s proceedings, Owuru, who said he was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984, sought to argue his own case wearing his wig and gown. He was ordered out of the Bar and directed to remove his wig and gown before he could be allowed to argue his case.
After complying with the orders, Owuru was asked why he came before the court again, having had his suits dismissed three times. Although he tried unsuccessfully to convince the apex court to grant him adequate audience, his explanations were rejected as unconvincing.
Following his recalcitrance, the court threatened to refer him to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC). Justice Abba-Aji ruled that Owuru’s conduct was unbecoming of a lawyer of over 40 years, as he claimed to be. The court, consequently dismissed his suit and ordered him to pay Tinubu N5 million.
The court lambasted him for taking the Supreme Court for a ride, wasting its precious time with baseless suits and gross abuse of court processes.
Before the suit was thrown out, Bode Olanipekun (SAN) who appeared for President Tinubu had drawn the attention of the court to several cases of Owuru that were dismissed on account of frivolity.
He added that the direction of the fresh suit could not be understood because of the poor ways and manners it was couched by the applicant.
Olanipekun also said that it was difficult for him to apologise to the court on behalf of Owuru because the conduct of the applicant had become something unbearable in the practice of law profession.
In his own response, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Taiwo Osipitan, assured that the conduct of the former presidential candidate would be referred to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
It will be recalled that the Court of Appeal had previously imposed a fine of N40 million on Owuru, to be paid to Tinubu, INEC, and others, for filing a suit against them.
The new suit, marked SC/CV/667/2023, prayed the apex court to sack Tinubu on two major grounds: alleged non-qualification to hold office as Nigeria’s President and alleged usurpation of the office in contravention of the law.
Defendants in the suit were former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Tinubu as 1st to 4th defendants, respectively.
Owuru, a British-trained lawyer called to the Nigerian bar in 1984, insisted that he won the 2019 presidential election, but alleged that his tenure was usurped by Buhari for eight years.
He claimed that his suit at the Supreme Court, which would have removed Buhari from office, was technically jettisoned by the Supreme Court due to a mix-up in hearing dates.
