Court fixes March 19 to hear 7 suits seeking to disqualify Buhari

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.
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.