The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, fixed March
19 to commence hearing on seven separate suits seeking to disqualify the
Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Major
General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), from contesting the forthcoming general
elections.
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| Buhari |
According to reports by
Vanguard, all the seven cases have been assigned to
Justice Ademola Adeniyi who presided over two of the suits yesterday.
Meantime,
both Buhari and the APC, who are defendants in the matter alongside the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, maintained
that they would not accept the service of the court processes which they
said were not validly served on them.
They challenged
the propriety of orders of Justice Adeniyi which had permitted the
plaintiffs to serve the originating summons on them through substituted
means.
Justice Adeniyi had on February 2, directed that
the court processes be served on the defendants by publishing same in
three national dailies.
The court also granted an order of abridgment of time within which the defendants must respond to the suits.
However,
both Buhari and his party, contended that there was no urgency in the
matter to warrant the court to hear the suits in a hurry.
Thus,
in separate preliminary objections filed by counsel to Buhari, Chief
Wole Olanipekun, SAN, and that of the APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN,
they asked the court to set-aside all the orders it has made in the
matter so far.
They further contended that the subject
matter of the suit bothers on pre-election issues which they said is not
time bound, adding that it can be determined even after the March 28
presidential election.
Nevertheless, Chief Mike
Ozehkome, SAN, who represented the plaintiffs yesterday, urged the court
to expedite hearing on the matter so as to determine Buhari’s fate
before the presidential election.
His submission
infuriated Buhari’s lawyer, Olanipekun, SAN, who argued that the suit
challenging the certificate his client submitted to the INEC, has
nothing to do with the election itself.
“My
lord what he is saying is that this case must end before this election.
It is a wrong impression. This case has nothing to do with the conduct
of the election. What if the presidential election was held on February
14?”, Olanipekun queried.
Likewise, INEC through its
lawyer Mr. Hassan Liman, SAN, yesterday, said it would file a
preliminary objection to challenge both the competence of the suits
which were filed by the two plaintiffs, Mr. Chukwunweike Okafor and Mr.
Max Ozoaka, as well as the jurisdiction of the court to entertain them.