ECOWAS
2019 presidential poll: Hope Party candidate drags FG to ECOWAS Court over alleged right breach
High Chief Albert Owuru, the presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), has dragged the Federal Government to the ECOWAS Court of Justice over alleged violation of his right to be heard by the Nigeria’s Supreme Court on his case bordering on the 2019 presidential election.
It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the late President Muhammadu Buhari the winner of the poll.
The ex-President Buhari served his second term in office between 2019 and 2023 before President Bola Tinubu was sworn in on May 29, 2023 as Nigerian president, following his emergence as winner of the 2023 election.
Owuru, in the suit marked: ECW/CCJ/APP/21/2025 dated July 31, 2025 but filed on August 6, 2025, by his lawyer, Yusuf Ibrahim, sought two orders before the court.
These include, “An order of the honourable court for an interim provisional measures to preserve and protect stated litigated acquired constitutional protected nights of parties to governance in the defendant’s community member state, in the created conflicting dual presidency, following the non-hearing and non-determination by the defendant apex court as to the first in time constitutional mandate owner to serve between the 2019 usurped mandate and 2023 questioned glitched electoral mandate in the absence of any power sharing agreement, pending the hearing and decision of this honourable court in the originating application.
“An order of injunction restraining the defendant whether by themselves, their servants, agents and privies including the present occupier of office of the president thereof, namely, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, admittedly wrongly foisted by Late General Muhammad Buhari, who had since apologised and sought forgiveness before his death recently, from further engaging in abuse of office, intimidation, harassment, oppressive and divisive sectional tribal appointments to seize up the vital central bank, electoral commission, security agents, heads of courts, including sensitive oil assets and national intelligence to satisfy foreign bond, unwarranted external borrowings and oppressive false declaration of state of emergency with imposed military administrator, for personal power grab and political vendetta, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive originating application.”
The suit was brought pursuant to Articles 79 of the Rule of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Provisions of African Charter and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
While Owuru, who refered to himself as the Citizen President, is the applicant in the case, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is named as the sole defendant.
The aggrieved candidate gave four grounds why his application should be granted.
“The need for an order for an interim provisional measure has become imperative and urgent to ensure and allay expressed fears over orchestrated effort by named usurpers of applicant acquired constututional mandate, having prevented the due hearing of the appeal before the defendant apex court and not to allow it to be wasted and spent which will render nugatory and moot any decision of this court.
“The urgency of the court intervention lies in its power and duty to protect and preserve the integnty of its proceedings and decisions, where case of fear and express abuses and violation of the applicant’snfundamental rights to participate in the governance of His people as elected.
“The act of impunity of the violators appears increasing, uncontrollable and affecting the body polity of entire region.
“The purpose of interim provisional measure in situation of competing rights is to protect the res to achieve balance by the court order to that effect,” he argued.
In his facts and summary of plea in law, Owuru said “the applicant is a community citizen of ECOWAS who instituted this action for right violation against the defendant’s member state bordering on the orchestrated documented efforts by officials of the defendant apex national courts to suppress, divert and deny the hearing of the applicant’s duly transmitted appeal from the court of appeal to interpret and determine the first in time, constitutional winner to serve between the applicant 2019 usurped adjudged acquired constitutional mandate under Section 133 of the 1999 Constitution and the named Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who joined in the legal fray with the late General Buhari, at the court of appeal in effort to protect his later acquired 2023 questioned electorally glitched mandate during the subsisting applicant case on the issues in court.”
Meanwhile, the court is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the matter.
The Supreme Court had, on January 2024, affirmed the de-registration of Hope Democratic Party by INEC for failing to meet some provisions of the 1999 Constitution in the results of previous elections.
INEC had in February 2019 de-registered 74 parties for “failing to meet the criteria provided for by Section 225(a) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).”
The apex court had also, on December 16, 2024, dismissed a suit filed by Owuru seeking the removal of President Tinubu from office for being frivolous and vexatious.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, in a judgment, held that the suit brought by the ex-presidential candidate of HDP was not only incompetent and lacking in merit but amounted to a waste of the court’s precious time.
The panel led by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, subsequently ordered the appellant to pay the President Tinubu the sum of N5 million as cost for defending the incompetent suit.
Besides, the apex court ordered its registry not to accept any frivolous originating summons from Owuru again.
Owuru and the HDP had, in the petition filed on March 7, 2019, canvassed the nullification of the election of late Buhari on three grounds that they were unlawfully excluded in the poll.
They argued that the February 23, 2019 poll was illegal, unconstitutional and a nullity because INEC had no power to shift the poll; and that a referendum conducted on February 16, 2019 produced him as winner.
But the presidential election tribunal of 2019 and the Supreme Court dismissed the petition and the appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Not satisfied, Owuru again filed a fresh suit in 2023 challenging the inauguration of President Tinubu as winner of the 2023 presidential election.
He predicated his action on the grounds that a suit over the rightful occupant of the seat of power remains pending at the Supreme Court.
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