By Alex Enumah in Abuja
The candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Owuru, and his party, in the February 23 presidential election have accused President Muhammadu Buhari and his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), of evading service of Supreme Court processes in an appeal filed against the judgment of the presidential election petition tribunal in favour of Buhari.
The two appellants in the affidavit of service deposed to by the bailiff of the apex court, Ekoja Paul, alleged that the service of the court processes on President Buhari at the Presidential Villa were scuttled on three occasions by fully armed presidential guards.
The bailiff, in the affidavit dated September 4, claimed that he was at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock to serve Buhari with a notice of appeal and record of appeal but that his efforts were aborted by the presidential security guards who allegedly denied access to effect service on the president as required by law.
Paul, in a separate affidavit of service, also claimed that he was at the chamber of Olanipekun, lead counsel to President Buhari, at number 6, Osaka close, off Constantine Street, Wuse Zone 4, to serve notice of appeal and record of appeal but that the service of the Supreme Court processes was refused on the grounds that he has not been briefed to handle the case at the Supreme Court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were second and third respondents in the appeal, have accepted the service of the court processes.
In an affidavit marked SC/1110/2019 and deposed to by one Odion Peter Ebhoaya, a legal practitioner in Abuja, HDP and Owuru claimed that they have been forced to file an exparte application on September 13 for formal substituted service on President Buhari and his lead counsel.
Owuru and HDP had, in the appeal, asked the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld the election of President Buhari as winner of the February 23 election.
The appellants, who claimed to have won the February 23 presidential poll, are challenging the tribunal’s decision that dismissed their petition on August 22 on grounds of jurisdiction.
In the appeal dated August 28 and filed same day on their behalf by Chukwunonyerem Njoku, the appellants want the Supreme Court to void the presidential election of February 23 on the grounds that it was unlawfully conducted by INEC due to illegal shift in the earlier February 16.
In the place of the election of February 23, the appellants prayed the apex court to uphold a referendum election said to have been conducted on February 16 and in which Owuru reportedly won with over 50 million voice votes by Nigerians.
The appeal, which is predicated on 12 grounds, also prayed the Supreme Court to order the swearing-in ceremony of Owuru as the duly elected president of Nigeria based on the February 16 referendum.
Amongst others, Owuru and HDP asserted that the presidential election petition tribunal erred in law when it declined statutory jurisdiction on the petition on the grounds that a referendum election is not known to law.
The tribunal had on August 22 dismissed the petition of the appellants on the grounds that their acclaimed referendum of February 16 was not conducted by INEC as required by law, while it held that the February 23 election was conducted by the electoral body in line with the provision of the law.
