WAEC Certificate Saga: President Buhari Hires 13 SANs, 10 Other Counsels To Appeal Court Ruling

President Buhari

Pres Buhari has employed the services of 13 Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN,
and 10 other counsels to appeal the ruling of Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the
Federal High Court in Abuja on May 26th this year, dismissing his preliminary
objection to a suit filed by an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Nnamdi
Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe against him challenging the authenticity of his WAEC
result.
Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe had dragged President Buhari before the court, arguing that
he did not meet the educational requirement to contest for President of Nigeria.
Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe alleged that President Buhari did not sit for the Cambridge
West African School Certificate WASC) in 1961 as he claimed.
When the suit came up on May 26th, President Buhari through his counsel,
raised an objection to the suit, challenging the mode of service of the
originating summons on him and insisting 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. However, Justice
Ademola, in his ruling, had held that it was incompetent and upheld the service
of the originating court processes on Buhari.
The judge held that the service of the court’s processes on the president
through the secretariat of the APC was in order as the court summons would
get to him even though it was delivered at his party secretariat. Dissatisfied
with this ruling, Buhari through his legal team has filed a notice of appeal at the
Court of Appeal, Abuja Judicial Division on seven grounds of appeal.
Among President Buhari's legal team, which endorsed the notice of appeal, is
Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Mr. 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 others.
Reacting to President Buhari's appeal on the case, Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe said the
president has the constitutional right of appeal and was within his rights to
exercise it particularly since he had not yet submitted a defence to the
substantive action and had filed nothing in defence of the merits of the case.

Source: ThisDay