The Supreme Court has dismissed an attempt to remove President Bola Tinubu from office and ordered a N5 million fine on the initiator, emphasizing the court’s stance against frivolous cases. The apex Court described the suit as ‘frivolous and vexatious’ of the defendant.

Filed by Ambrose Owuru, presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 election, the case accused President Tinubu of being an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and his involvement in drug allegations.

The plaintiff also urged the apex court to invoke Section 157 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and remove President Tinubu from office, as he argued that foreign authorities are controlling the president.
In his application, Mr Owuru stated that his motion “will protect and save Nigeria from the looming sell-off of the entire country’s wealth and political health in the light of the new revelations of the nature of the 4th Respondent’s (Mr Tinubu’s) constitutional disqualification to hold office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A five-member panel of the apex court presided over by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, ruled the case out and warned the court registry not to allow Mr Owuru to file frivolous cases before it again, claiming that the plaintiff is taking the court for granted.

Mr Ambrose Owuru, a lawyer and also a presidential candidate of the defunct Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 general election is reputed for filing some unorthodox cases in the past in which he had been slammed with some fines in the process.

After the 2023 general elections, won by President Tinubu, Mr Owuru, who was not a presidential candidate in the polls, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to swear him as the next president of the country on the ground that he was the winner of the 2019 general election, but the electoral body declared the former President, Mohammadu Buhari, as the winner of the election.

He added that even though the Supreme Court had ruled against him in 2019, he believed the apex court’s judgement was based on the flaw in the process, and as a result, he deserved to be the person to succeed the former president.

While his case was dismissed in the High Court, Mr Owuru took his case to the appeal court to further fight his case but was dismissed and slammed with an N40 million fine for abusing the court process.