Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja has on Thursday,May 28,2015 dismissed an ex-parte application seeking to stop the swearing-in of President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
In his ruling on the ex-parte motion brought by a civil society organisation, the Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative he described the application as a “self-induced urgency”,because the plaintiff’s did not challenge Buhari’s emergence as president-elect after two months of the presidential election.
He said: “In law, an ex-parte application seeking an order of injunction presupposes the existence of a real case of urgency not self-induced urgency.
“Motion ex-parte dated and filed on 26 of May, is a clear case of self-induced urgency.
“This court is therefore of the view that the plaintiff applicant’s motion dated and filed on May 26 is devoid of any merit and the same is accordingly dismissed”, Justice Mohammed declared.
The suit was adjourned till June 26 for further mention.
The court also ordered the applicant to serve all originating processes and hearing notices on the defendants.
The applicant, the Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative had earlier,in a suit filed by its lawyer, Mr Philip Ekpo, claimed that President-Elect Buhari did not meet the qualification enshrined in the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act to have contested the position of the president of Nigeria at the 2015 general elections.
Though the application was ex-parte, Chief Lateef Fagbemi , SAN leading two other Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Chief Akin Olujimi and Kola Awodein announced a memorandum of conditional appearance for Mr. Buhari.
