A Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that all applications filed in the matter seeking to disqualify the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari from contesting the presidential election on Saturday will be heard alongside the substantive suit.
The suit was filed by Mr. Chukwunweike Okafor, an Abuja-based legal practitioner.
In deciding to hear all pending applications with the substantive suit, Justice Adeniyi Ademola upheld the arguments of the plaintiff’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
He had argued that Order 29 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2009, was a mandatory provision of the law, which enjoins the court to hear both the interlocutory applications and the substantive suit together.
Ozekhome cited several legal authorities to buttress his position, arguing that time was of the essence in this pre-election matter, so as to enable the court decide once and for all, whether or not Buhari is qualified to stand for Saturday’s presidential election.
However, counsel to Buhari, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), had opposed the said application wherein he urged the court to discountenance the submissions by Ozekhome since by the order of court made on February 23, 2015, only the interlocutory applications were ripe for hearing.
Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and Mr. Hassan Liman (SAN), counsel to the second and third defendants (APC and INEC), respectively, aligned with the submission by Olanipekun.
But in its ruling, the court held that since the matter was a pre-election matter and there was a need for parties to know their positions before the said election, it was proper for both applications and the substantive suit bordering on disqualification to be taken together.
The court cited numerous Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions to buttress its point.
The court read out the provisions of Order 29 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2009, stating that it agreed with the submissions by Ozekhome that both the interlocutory applications and the substantive suit must be heard together to save time and cost.
The matter was subsequently adjourned to today for ruling on the application by two legal practitioners who sought to be joined in the suit after hearing arguments of their counsel.
Two lawyers, Ebun Adegboruwa and Chukwuma Ochu, had applied to be made parties to the suit.
They claimed that they would be disenfranchised if Buhari, the candidate they wanted to vote for, is disqualified.
Ozekhome however opposed the applications, describing the lawyers as interlopers.
The judge will rule today on their applications to be joined in the suit.
However, as the lawyers to the parties argued their case in the court, the APC yesterday warned against any orchestrated, last-minute disqualification of its presidential candidate in order to pave the way for an easy victory for President Goodluck Jonathan or another postponement of the elections.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said if it is true, as it is being widely speculated across the country, that the Jonathan administration has procured a judgment to disqualify the APC presidential candidate today, when the Federal High Court in Abuja is expected to rule on the issue, then
“it portends a great danger for our country”.
It said, in addition to other reasons, the six-week postponement of the elections might have been used by those who never wanted the polls to hold in the first instance to shop for such a satanic judgment.
“Anyone who will disqualify a presidential candidate on the eve of an election can only have one and only one purpose for that: to trigger chaos and pandemonium across the country.
“Perhaps this is the reason for the deployment of troops across the country to crack down on possible protests and create confusion.
“Then those who orchestrated the disqualification will simply use what they expect to be angry reactions nationwide as an excuse to postpone the elections again, thus triggering a constitutional crisis, the end of which no one can predict.
“This is why we are hoping that good reason will prevail and nothing will be done deliberately to plunge Nigeria into a crisis by the same people who have always been quick to say their political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian,” APC said.
But in a swift reaction, the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode said yesterday that the APC spokesperson had told yet another lie about the speculated disqualification of Buhari from Saturday’s election.
He said: “Lai Mohammed has told yet another dirty lie. What on earth is our business with Buhari's court case? We know that he does not have a certificate and that he was not eligible to contest but we have moved on from there and we are ready to meet him in the field.
“The truth is that the APC are suffering from all manner of paranoia and they have lost touch with reality. They are the proverbial conspiracy theorists who are so consumed by their own morbid fears that they sleep in their wardrobes and under their beds every night.
“Each time someone knocks at the gates of their homes they wave their hands in the air, they shiver and scream and they say ‘the president has sent the security people to come and arrest us’.
“Frankly they deserve to be pitied. They see government conspiracies everywhere and they have become prisoners of their own wild hallucinations.
“The truth is that we are not in the least bit interested in General Buhari's travails at the court and we are not in a position to influence the decision of the judge or the outcome of the case one way or the other.
“The problem with the APC is that they cannot appreciate the difference between the judiciary and the executive. They are so primitive that they cannot comprehend the concept of ‘separation of powers’.
“Simply because General Buhari himself controlled the courts and threatened judges when he was in power, he thinks that the same thing is happening 31 years later under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“He does not appreciate the fact that times have changed and that our courts and judges are fiercely independent and deeply courageous.
“We wish General Buhari well in his case tomorrow but frankly speaking it is the last thing on our minds and we are not losing any sleep over it. Our prayer is that whichever way, the rule of law is upheld and that justice is done.
“We also hope that he is not disqualified so that we have the opportunity to deal with him once and for all and demystify him at the polls. It would be a cruel act to deprive us of the opportunity of bursting his bubble once and for all and to humiliate him at the polls.
“We must remember that it was the Director-General of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who has interfered with the work of the judiciary in his state and has attempted to intimidate the judges by shutting down the state High Courts for the last one year.
“It is interesting to note that when the same APC that is now calling into question the integrity of the judiciary got an injunction from the Lagos State High Court to stop the broadcast of the infamous ‘Lion of Bourdillon’ documentary they did not complain about government interference in the judiciary at the time.
“Neither did they complain when they got another order from the Lagos State High Court to stop the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Jonathan, from deploying troops to help secure lives during the elections.
“When things go their way the courts are good but when they suspect that they may not, they then make baseless and childish allegations that have no basis in logic or reality. Our advice to them is to grow up, get real and prepare for the greatest humiliation of their lives on March 28.”
In deciding to hear all pending applications with the substantive suit, Justice Adeniyi Ademola upheld the arguments of the plaintiff’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
He had argued that Order 29 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2009, was a mandatory provision of the law, which enjoins the court to hear both the interlocutory applications and the substantive suit together.
Ozekhome cited several legal authorities to buttress his position, arguing that time was of the essence in this pre-election matter, so as to enable the court decide once and for all, whether or not Buhari is qualified to stand for Saturday’s presidential election.
However, counsel to Buhari, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), had opposed the said application wherein he urged the court to discountenance the submissions by Ozekhome since by the order of court made on February 23, 2015, only the interlocutory applications were ripe for hearing.
Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and Mr. Hassan Liman (SAN), counsel to the second and third defendants (APC and INEC), respectively, aligned with the submission by Olanipekun.
But in its ruling, the court held that since the matter was a pre-election matter and there was a need for parties to know their positions before the said election, it was proper for both applications and the substantive suit bordering on disqualification to be taken together.
The court cited numerous Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions to buttress its point.
The court read out the provisions of Order 29 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2009, stating that it agreed with the submissions by Ozekhome that both the interlocutory applications and the substantive suit must be heard together to save time and cost.
The matter was subsequently adjourned to today for ruling on the application by two legal practitioners who sought to be joined in the suit after hearing arguments of their counsel.
Two lawyers, Ebun Adegboruwa and Chukwuma Ochu, had applied to be made parties to the suit.
They claimed that they would be disenfranchised if Buhari, the candidate they wanted to vote for, is disqualified.
Ozekhome however opposed the applications, describing the lawyers as interlopers.
The judge will rule today on their applications to be joined in the suit.
However, as the lawyers to the parties argued their case in the court, the APC yesterday warned against any orchestrated, last-minute disqualification of its presidential candidate in order to pave the way for an easy victory for President Goodluck Jonathan or another postponement of the elections.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said if it is true, as it is being widely speculated across the country, that the Jonathan administration has procured a judgment to disqualify the APC presidential candidate today, when the Federal High Court in Abuja is expected to rule on the issue, then
“it portends a great danger for our country”.
It said, in addition to other reasons, the six-week postponement of the elections might have been used by those who never wanted the polls to hold in the first instance to shop for such a satanic judgment.
“Anyone who will disqualify a presidential candidate on the eve of an election can only have one and only one purpose for that: to trigger chaos and pandemonium across the country.
“Perhaps this is the reason for the deployment of troops across the country to crack down on possible protests and create confusion.
“Then those who orchestrated the disqualification will simply use what they expect to be angry reactions nationwide as an excuse to postpone the elections again, thus triggering a constitutional crisis, the end of which no one can predict.
“This is why we are hoping that good reason will prevail and nothing will be done deliberately to plunge Nigeria into a crisis by the same people who have always been quick to say their political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian,” APC said.
But in a swift reaction, the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode said yesterday that the APC spokesperson had told yet another lie about the speculated disqualification of Buhari from Saturday’s election.
He said: “Lai Mohammed has told yet another dirty lie. What on earth is our business with Buhari's court case? We know that he does not have a certificate and that he was not eligible to contest but we have moved on from there and we are ready to meet him in the field.
“The truth is that the APC are suffering from all manner of paranoia and they have lost touch with reality. They are the proverbial conspiracy theorists who are so consumed by their own morbid fears that they sleep in their wardrobes and under their beds every night.
“Each time someone knocks at the gates of their homes they wave their hands in the air, they shiver and scream and they say ‘the president has sent the security people to come and arrest us’.
“Frankly they deserve to be pitied. They see government conspiracies everywhere and they have become prisoners of their own wild hallucinations.
“The truth is that we are not in the least bit interested in General Buhari's travails at the court and we are not in a position to influence the decision of the judge or the outcome of the case one way or the other.
“The problem with the APC is that they cannot appreciate the difference between the judiciary and the executive. They are so primitive that they cannot comprehend the concept of ‘separation of powers’.
“Simply because General Buhari himself controlled the courts and threatened judges when he was in power, he thinks that the same thing is happening 31 years later under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“He does not appreciate the fact that times have changed and that our courts and judges are fiercely independent and deeply courageous.
“We wish General Buhari well in his case tomorrow but frankly speaking it is the last thing on our minds and we are not losing any sleep over it. Our prayer is that whichever way, the rule of law is upheld and that justice is done.
“We also hope that he is not disqualified so that we have the opportunity to deal with him once and for all and demystify him at the polls. It would be a cruel act to deprive us of the opportunity of bursting his bubble once and for all and to humiliate him at the polls.
“We must remember that it was the Director-General of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who has interfered with the work of the judiciary in his state and has attempted to intimidate the judges by shutting down the state High Courts for the last one year.
“It is interesting to note that when the same APC that is now calling into question the integrity of the judiciary got an injunction from the Lagos State High Court to stop the broadcast of the infamous ‘Lion of Bourdillon’ documentary they did not complain about government interference in the judiciary at the time.
“Neither did they complain when they got another order from the Lagos State High Court to stop the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Jonathan, from deploying troops to help secure lives during the elections.
“When things go their way the courts are good but when they suspect that they may not, they then make baseless and childish allegations that have no basis in logic or reality. Our advice to them is to grow up, get real and prepare for the greatest humiliation of their lives on March 28.”
