The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed March 9 for judgment in a fresh lawsuit challenging President Bola Tinubu’s legal authority to remove elected state officials during a state of emergency.
Justice James Omotosho set the date after lawyers for both parties adopted their court processes and presented arguments. The suit was filed by a civil society group, the Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance (CSOCLC), through its counsel Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe.
The case centres on the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State last year. The NGO argues that while the President is empowered under Section 305 of the Constitution to declare a state of emergency, he does not have the power to suspend or remove elected executive and legislative officials, nor appoint an interim administrator.
Justice Omotosho, however, noted that the case closely resembles previous suits he had dismissed, citing jurisdictional issues linked to the Emergency Powers (Jurisdiction) Act of 1962. He also referred to a Supreme Court judgment of December 15, 2025, which reportedly struck out a related case on procedural grounds.
In response, the plaintiff’s lawyer acknowledged the earlier rulings but insisted they were wrong. He argued that the 1962 Act is a “spent law” that was deliberately excluded before the 1999 Constitution came into force, making any 2025 presidential order based on it unconstitutional, null, and void.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing the President and the Attorney-General of the Federation maintained that only the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over such matters and urged the court to strike out the case.
The judgment is now expected to revive a sensitive constitutional debate many believed had already been settled.
