Buhari, APC Take Action Over Lawsuit Seeking to Declare Atiku as President, Court Makes Crucial Pronouncement
- The Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance (CSOCLC) is not relenting in its effort to get President Buhari sacked
- CSOCLC, after its loss at high court, has proceeded to the Court of Appeal in Abuja asking for the sack of the president (over an alleged false affidavit) and declaration of Atiku as president
- President Buhari and the APC, through their lawyers, asked the court to dismiss the case, saying that the group had failed to prove its allegation at the high court
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FCT, Abuja - President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to dismiss the appeal seeking to nullify his election and swear in former Vice President Abubakar Atiku as president.
A civil society group, Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance (CSOCLC), had filed the appeal, arguing that the affidavit made by President Buhari in the 2019 general elections was false, Daily Trust reported.
Source: Facebook
The CSO, through its counsel, Nnamdi Ahaiwe Esq., contended that the affidavit made by President Buhari on November 24, 2014, at the FCT High Court “that all his academic qualification documents as filled in his Presidential Form, President APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary, Military Board as at the time of the affidavit is false.”
The CSO also contended that there was no any organ, institution, agency, department or authority known as and called the ‘Military Board’ existing in Nigeria as at the 24th day of November 2014 when President Buhari deposed to an affidavit sworn to at the high court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
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The group, in the event its reliefs succeeds, wants the appellate court to give an order nullifying Buhari's election, withdrawing the certificate of return to office of the President from him and directing INEC to issue a new certificate of return to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), being the candidate who came second in the 2019 general elections.
Buhari, APC react
In their reply, President Buhari and his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), submitted that the inability of the CSO to prove its allegation beyond reasonable grounds at the high court, being criminal, with a subpoena of the Secretary of the Military Board to produce the certificates, was fatal to their case.
They stated that the Supreme Court had resolved the subject matter of the appeal in Abubakar Atiku and Another vs INEC and others, maintaining that under the doctrine of stare decisis, the appellate court must stand by the earlier decision of the apex court.
Legit.ng gathers that the APC and President Buhari’s submission is contained in their Respondents’ Brief of Argument filed on January 31, 2022, challenging the appeal by the CSO.
Case adjourned
Meanwhile, at the resumed hearing on Wednesday, February 9, two lawyers, Oluwole Afolabi and F. O. Amedu, appeared for both the APC and President Buhari and contended they were briefed.
Consequently, the three-member panel presided by Justice Haruna Tsamani adjourned the appeal to Wednesday, May 18 to enable the parties to reconcile the issue of representation.
2023: Atiku visits IBB in Minna, reveals when he will declare presidential ambition
Meanwhile, ahead of 2023, Atiku has paid a visit to a former military head of state, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, at his Uphill residence in Minna.
The duo had a closed-door meeting which lasted for an hour on Tuesday, February 1. Speaking to newsmen, Atiku said:
“I have only come on a visit, I will let you know about my presidential ambition at the appropriate time.”
Source: Legit.ng
