Buhari's Certificate: Senior advocates storm court for mention of suit

Many Senior Advocates of Nigeria on Monday stormed an Abuja Federal High Court for the mentioning of a suit challenging APC presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s eligibility to run for president.

It would be recalled that Mr Max Ozoaka, a lawyer, had filed the suit seeking to disqualify Buhari from contesting this year’s elections over an alleged failure to provide evidence of his secondary school certificate.

At Monday’s sitting slated for mention of the case, the court was filled to capacity with various teams of lawyers, each led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) representing different parties.

The SANS included Wole Olanipekun (team leader), Akinlolu Olujinmi, Lateef Fagbemi, Rotimi Akeredolu, Kola Awodein, Femi Falana, Prof Taiwo Osipitan, Femi Atoyebi, Funke Aboyade and James Ocholi, representing Buhari.

Ozoaka’s included Godwin Obla, SAN (who led the team), Ade Okeaya-Inneh (SAN) and Ken Njemanze (SAN).

INEC’s legal team comprised Mr Adebgoyega Awomolo (SAN) (who led the team and announced himself as INEC’s Chief Legal Consultant), Hassan Liman (SAN) and Mrs Victoria Awomolo (SAN).

There were also Mr Ajayi Olowo, Abdulhameed Mohammed and Mohammed Ibrahim who came as counsel who brought applications from their clients seeking to be joined as defendants in the suit.

At Monday’s mention of the case, Obla said that his client had complied with an ex-parte order of the court dated Feb. 2, to serve Buhari with court processes via newspaper publications.

He said that the second defendant, INEC, had responded and that he also received two fresh applications from parties seeking to be joined in the suit.

Obla said that he was not opposed to the joinder applications, adding that he needed a short adjournment to enable him reply to all the processes he received.

Responding, Olanipekun said that his team was in court ``in protest,`` adding that they were challenging the court’s Feb. 2 ex-parte order and the suit itself.

Olanipekun contended that the case was not even ripe for mention as he was within time and would need a short adjournment to file processes.

Also, INEC’s counsel, Awomolo sought for time to enable his client to file a memorandum for conditional appearance, having filed and served all parties with his counter-affidavit.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola fixed Feb 23 to enable the court to take all pending applications and hear the case.

The judge had earlier in the day fixed the same date to hear another suit challenging Buhari’s eligibility filed by Mr Chike Okafor.

Ozoaka, in his suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/14/2015, via an originating summons, is also seeking an order restraining the INEC from permitting Buhari to run for president in 2015.

The plaintiff is also seeking a declaration that by the combined provisions of Sections 31(1)(2) and (3) of the 2010 Electoral Act and INEC Form CF 001, Buhari is mandatorily obliged to strictly comply with their provisions.

This, he argued, had to do with Buhari’s filing and submission of INEC Form CF 001, without attaching evidence of educational qualifications as required, which was an offence under Section 31 of the Act.

The plaintiff, therefore, prayed the court to declare that Buhari is not eligible to participate in the 2015 Presidential election for failure to comply with the terms for submission of list of candidates.