Court To Decide Buhari’s Certificate Saga February 7th

Even after they removed Onoghen and drafted Okon Abang to Abuja. God is great.

A
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja division has adjourned proceedings
in the suit seeking the disqualification of President Muhammadu Buhari
from participating in the February 16 presidential election till
February 7, 2019.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed fixed the date
following a request by the plaintiffs’ counsel for time to respond to
the second defendant’s counter-affidavit served on him on Thursday
evening.

The plaintiffs, Kalu Agu, Labaran Ismail and Hassy
El-Kuris, in the suit, are alleging that the President Buhari lied in
his Form CF 001 submitted to the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), regarding his educational qualification and
certificates.

In the suit filed on November 5, 2018, they are
therefore seeking an order of the court to disqualifying Buhari from
presenting himself and or contesting for president in the 2019 election.

Defendants
in the suit filed on behalf of the plaintiff by Okpai Ukiro, has
President Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC as 1st,
2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.

When the matter was called
for hearing, plaintiffs’ counsel, Godwin Haruna, who held brief for
Ukpai Ukiro, informed the court that the matter was adjourned at the
last sitting to January 21 for the hearing of all pending applications
but was further adjourned to today January 31, since the court did not
sit.

He, however, said he would be asking the court for a short
adjournment to enable him to respond to the second defendant’s notice of
preliminary objections which he said was filed on January 31 and served
on him around 4.30pm.

Haruna who recalled that the processes
were served on the APC since November 21 and they just responded only
today, asked the court for a cost of N100k against the APC for foisting
the adjournment on the court.

He said the defendant had been in court since but never bothered to file its response.

While
counsel to President Buhari, Abdullahi Abubakar, did not object to the
request for adjournment, counsel to APC, Tayo Lasaki, who said he was
not opposed to the adjournment, however, said he was opposing the
request for cost against him.

Lasaki said since the second
defendant was challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the
matter, it did not matter when the issue was raised.

He also
argued that the request for adjournment was made by the plaintiffs and
not him, adding that although the second defendant was appearing in the
matter for the first time, they were, however, prepared to go on with
the matter if the plaintiffs were ready.

Source:- Sunnewsonline