A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the posthumous national honours conferred on the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief M.K.O Abiola, and human rights activist, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi.
Ardo, a former Special Assistant on Research and Strategy to then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, also asked the court to strip Abiola’s running mate in the 1993 presidential election, Babagana Kingibe, of the national honour conferred on him.
The investiture ceremony held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 12.
But Ardo filed his motion on June 14 seeking the nullification of the conferment of the honours as a follow-up to the main suit which he earlier filed on June 11 seeking to stop the investiture ceremony.
He wants the national honours nullified by the court on the grounds that they were conferred in defiance to his pending suit.
He had filed the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/609/2018, contending that “without the advice of the Council of State,” the President lacked the power to confer the national honours as planned.
He also asked the court to set aside the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to confer national awards on the planned honourees.
He joined the President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), as the defendants.
The President had on June 12 proceeded to posthumously confer the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on Abiola for the significant contribution of June 12, 1993 presidential election to Nigeria’s democracy.
The President who earlier declared June 12 of every year as Democracy Day as against May 29, which the nation adopted to mark the nation’s return of democratic rule in 1999, also conferred Kingibe with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger.
The President also posthumously conferred GCON on Fawehinmi for his contribution to the entrenchment of human rights in the country.
But Ardo, through his lawyer, Doueyi Fiderikumo, filed his motion on June 14, seeking, “An order setting aside the conferment of national honours on the late Chief MKO Abiola, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN.”
As part of the grounds for the application, the plaintiff stated in an affidavit filed in support of the motion, “After the institution of the present suit, I served a letter on the defendants/respondents drawing their attention to the existence of the present suit and urged them to stay action on the conferment of honors on the trio of late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, pending the hearing of the case before this court.
“I also served on the said defendants advance copy of the originating processes in the suit and the pending motion for interlocutory injunction along with the said letter.”
The case has yet to be assigned to a judge.
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