2019 elections: HDP candidate drags FG to ECOWAS Court over alleged right breach

The presidential candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 presidential election, Chief Albert Owuru, has dragged the Federal Government to the ECOWAS Court of Justice over alleged violation of his right to be heard by the Nigeria Supreme Court on his case bordering on the 2019 presidential election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the late President Muhammadu Buhari the winner of the poll and 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 filed on August 6, 2025, by his lawyer, Yusuf Ibrahim, seeks two orders from the ECOWAS court.

One of which reads, “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.”

While Owuru, who referred 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 hinged his application on four grounds, which include, “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 constitutional 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 integrity of its proceedings and decisions, where case of fear and express abuses and violations of the applicant’s fundamental 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 the entire region.

“The purpose of an interim provisional measure in a 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 court 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, in 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.

Owuru and the HDP had, in a petition filed on March 7, 2019, canvassed the nullification of the election of late Buhari on three grounds that they were unlawfully excluded from 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 the 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 the winner of the 2023 presidential election.

He predicated his action on the ground that a suit over the rightful occupant of the seat of power remains pending at the Supreme Court.

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