President
Muhammadu Buhari filed an appeal at the Appeal Court
– The suit filed by Barr. Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe
challenging President Buhari’s competence to contest for president is still in
court
– When the suit came up on May 26, Justice Adeniyi Ademola dismissed
Buhari’s preliminary objection
– The president has appealed the ruling of
Justice Ademola at the appellate court.
President Muhammadu Buhari is not
satisfied with the ruling of Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court
in Abuja who on May 26, 2016 dismissed his preliminary objection in a suit
filed against him by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Nnamdi
Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe.
Buhari, through his legal team led by Chief Wole Olanipekun
(SAN), has appealed the ruling, This Day reports. Share on Facebook Share on
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He filed a notice of
appeal at the Abuja judicial division of the appellate court on seven grounds
of appeal.
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Other
members of the president’s legal team are Lateef O. Fagbemi (SAN), Chief Akin
Olujinmi (SAN), Oluwarotimi O. Akeredolu (SAN), Kola Awodein (SAN), Prof. Taiwo
Osipitan (SAN), Charles Edosomwan (SAN), Emeka Ngige (SAN), Femi Atoyebi (SAN),
Femi Falana (SAN), Funke Aboyade (SAN), H.O. Afolabi (SAN), Muiz Banire (SAN),
and 10 other counsel.
In February 2015, Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe filed a suit
challenging the competence of Buhari to stand election into the office of
president of Nigeria when he lacks the basic educational qualifications set out
in the Constitution.
He prayed the court to among others declare that Buhari is
unqualified to aspire to the position of president because he did not sit for
the Cambridge West African School Certificate (WASC), in 1961 as he claimed.
When the suit came up on May 26, Buhari in his preliminary objection challenged
the mode of service of the originating summons on him.
He insisted that he
ought to have been served at an address in Kaduna instead of by substituted
means at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in
Abuja.
READ ALSO: Buhari lists three changes Nigeria needs
In his ruling,
Justice Ademola upheld the service of the originating court processes on
Buhari, saying the court processes of serving him was proper.
When contacted,
the plaintiff, Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe said the president has the constitutional right
to appeal and was within his rights to exercise it.
Meanwhile, checks at the
registry of the Federal High Court, Abuja showed that the plaintiff has filed
an application to amend his originating summons to include prayers for the
nullification of the election of Buhari.
He also wants to add prayers for the
court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw
the certificate of return issued to Buhari and issue a fresh one to Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan who came second in the 2015 presidential election.
The
plaintiff’s motion on notice for amendment of his originating summons has been
served on all the defendants and will come up for hearing on Thursday, June 16,
2016. In the build up to the 2015 presidential election, Nigerians were
buffeted with claims and counter-claims regarding Buhari’s qualification to
contest for the office of president.
There was clamor over the inability of Buhari to
produce his WASC certificate. The certificate saga took another dimension after
the Nigerian army which claimed it had the certificate later retracted its
statement saying the certificate was not in its possession.
However, after the
winning the election, reports surfaced that the Nigerian Army found the missing certificate
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