A human rights lawyer, Festus Ogun, has affirmed that the May 29 inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s next President is non-negotiable.
In a statement yesterday, he noted that approaching the court to stop Tinubu’s inauguration is a gross abuse of court process.
He spoke to counter another lawyer, Ambrose Owuru, who asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to, among other things, prohibit President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from proceeding with the inauguration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on May 29.
Owuru claimed to be the presidential candidate of the now de-registered Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 presidential election.
But while countering Oworu’s position, Ogun said: “These arguments and insinuations that the President-elect ought not to be inaugurated because of the obviously flawed electoral process and pending cases at the tribunal are nonsensical. This is an open invitation to tyranny which we must reject in the interest of our tottering democracy.”
He argued that once INEC declares a ‘winner’, there is a presumption of regularity in favour of INEC which can only be rebutted at the Tribunal.
According to him,“While we wait for the outcome of the cases in court, the law says the President-elect should be inaugurated and begin the country’s administration. I am tempted to ask: What if Bola Tinubu is successful at the Tribunal? While this is not a certainty, it is a legal probability.
“Since the presumption of regularity is yet to be rebutted, the only legal and constitutional route is to allow the President-elect to take over the control of governmental machineries. Anything short of this will spell doom and disaster. We must avert that.
“If the tribunal later declares that Obi or Atiku is the winner of the election, then Tinubu is mandated to leave office immediately, if he chooses not to exercise his right of appeal. We cannot, on the altar of political interests, compromise the sacred standard of peace and order provided by the Constitution.
“We must not destroy what is left of this country, especially at this perilous moment of our national history. We must not forget that we are not merely operating a democracy, we are operating a constitutional democracy where the rule of law must prevail over all personal views and sentiments.
“Under our extant laws, Bola Tinubu’s inauguration is not only imperative, it is non-negotiable.”
Listed as respondents in Oworu’s suit are President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, and INEC.
He claimed to have won the 2019 presidential election, and argued that nobody should succeed Buhari because he is yet to serve out his tenure.
He contended that Buhari has been usurping his tenure since 2019, and the Supreme Court was yet to determine a petition he filed in 2019 where he challenged Buhari’s declaration as winner of the 2019 presidential election.
The claimant is praying the court for an order of prohibitory injunction compelling Buhari, AGF and INEC, their servants, agents and privies, to preserve and give due cognizance and abstain from any further undertaking or engaging in any act of usurpation of adjudged acquired Constitutional rights and mandate as winner of the 2019 presidential election.
He also wants an order ‘directing and placing on notice that any form of handover inauguration’ organised and superintended by Buhari on May 29, 2023, outside the adjudged winner of the 2019 presidential election, subject of the pending appeal, remains and is viewed as an ‘interim place holder’ administration pending the hearing and determination of his substantive appeal on constitutional interpretation.
