Buhari Cleared to Contest, Eligibility Suit Deferred

• Suits challenging use of card readers shifted to after elections

By Tobi Soniyi in Abuja with agency report

By adjourning further hearing in the suit seeking to disqualify the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, to April 22 and 23, a Federal High Court in Abuja has finally cleared the hurdle for him to participate in Saturday’s presidential poll.

Four different plaintiffs had approached the court seeking to disqualify Buhari from participating in the presidential poll over alleged certificate forgery and perjury.

However, the trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, at the resumed hearing yesterday, refused the joinder application brought by one pro-democracy activist, Ebunoluwa Adegoruwa, and another lawyer, Chukwuma Ochu, seeking to be joined in the matter.
Ruling on their application, the court held that none of the parties seeking to be joined had shown enough interest that could warrant their joinder, describing them as interlopers and busy bodies.

Having refused their application, the court later adjourned to April 22 and 23 for hearing on the substantive suit against Buhari.
The substantive suit was filed by Chika Okafor who had dragged Buhari to court seeking to disqualify him from participating in the March 28 presidential election over alleged certificate forgery and perjury.
The plaintiff claimed that Buhari’s failure to submit his certificate of academic qualifications contravened Sections 131 and 318 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 31(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010.
He also argued that Buhari lied under oath to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when he swore that the military was in possession of his academic papers.

While the case was pending, APC applied to be joined and was consequently joined as a co-defendant.
However, reacting to the adjournment, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), yesterday warned Buhari's supporters against celebrating prematurely as the High Court could overturn Saturday’s election result if it finds that Buhari lacked the requisite qualifications.
“In the event, for example, Buhari wins the election, all it simply means is that when eventually we finish this case and the court finds that he was not qualified… the court will simply dethrone him,” Ozekhome told reporters.
Buhari’s lawyer, Akin Olujinmi, on the other hand, said he was “absolutely happy” with the court’s decision as it removed the air of “uncertainty and pressure on the INEC with the election just three days away”.

In another development, the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court both in Abuja have adjourned further hearing in separate suits challenging the planned use of card readers for the conduct of the elections till after the polls.
While the appeal court did not fix a particular date for the suit, the Federal High Court adjourned till April 30.
The appeal before the Court of Appeal emanated from a ruling by Justice Ademola also of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice Ademola had earlier granted an order of stay of proceedings in the suit, which was filed by three political parties – the United Democratic Party, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria and Alliance for Democracy.

While the APC, which is a defendant in the main suit, is challenging the judge’s decision to abridge the time within which it must respond to the suit, the plaintiffs have appealed against the court’s order of stay of proceedings in the suit.
The APC, through its lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), yesterday withdrew a separate application for stay of proceedings it had filed before the Court of Appeal and the appeal panel headed by Justice Abubakar Jega subsequently adjourned the matter till when the APC compiles records for the purpose of prosecuting the appeal.

Also at the Federal High Court, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, who had scheduled the suit filed by Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe for hearing yesterday, was made to adjourn till April 30, following a separate application for stay of proceedings filed by the APC before the appellate court.

Olanipekun, who also appeared for the APC before Justice Kolawole, anchored the party’s application for stay of proceedings on its appeal against the ruling of the judge delivered on March 23, 2015, dismissing the party’s prayer to join the suit as a defendant in the suit.
The plaintiff in the suit, Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, had opposed the application for stay of proceedings, insisting that APC’s application to join the suit, having been dismissed, should no longer be heard.
In granting the party’s prayer partially, Justice Kolawole held that the party must be allowed to exercise its constitutional right to appeal the court’s decision.

The judge however held that he decided to fix a definite date for hearing in the suit so that the APC “will not go to slumber” and refuse to prosecute its appeal against his earlier ruling.
Meanwhile, Olanipekun also informed the court of a pending application filed by Buhari, seeking to join the suit as a defendant.
Also, two lawyers - Abdul Mohammed and A. Erhabor – also told the court that they had filed such applications for their respective client

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Wednesday urged the public to shun panic buying and stock-piling of petrol, especially during the general elections. This was contained in a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Department, NNPC, Mr Ohi Alegbe, in Abuja. It stated that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, had directed the regulatory agencies in the ministry to sanction any marketer found hoarding, diverting or selling products above regulated prices. The agencies, it said, were Department of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency. The statement stated that the corporation had enough stock of the product to keep the country wet for two months. It put the current stock of premium motor spirit (petrol) in its depots across the country at 1.9 billion litres. It also appealed to petroleum tanker drivers, who had stopped hauling fuel from depots in the coastal states to the Northern part of the country, to return. It explained that some drivers had expressed anxiety of being caught in unfounded fears of post-election violence. It, however, stated that the corporation was working closely with security agencies to provide maximum security. It also cautioned marketers to desist from capitalising on the situation to hoard and divert petroleum products, thereby subjecting Nigerians to unnecessary hardships. The corporation urged members of the public to discountenance rumours or insinuations of petrol scarcity. It stated that all issues relating to the importation of fuel by marketers had been resolved. It stressed that the Petroleum Pipelines and Marketing Company, PPMC, had released a huge volume of petrol into the market.

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