ABUJA, Nigeria – The African Action Congress has instituted a constitutional lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and the leadership of the National Assembly, challenging the President’s failure to transmit a formal written declaration of power to Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima during his extended European vacation, judicial and political correspondents reported from the court registry on Monday afternoon, September 28, 2026.
The originating summons, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2353/2026, was filed on Monday morning by the National Legal Adviser of the AAC and Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, with the party’s 2027 presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, present inside the registry to witness the formal lodgment of the legal processes.
Okay News reports that joined as co-defendants in the action alongside President Tinubu are the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN; the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Ph.D.; and the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The opposition party is seeking a binding judicial declaration that President Tinubu’s failure or refusal to transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives before embarking on his overseas vacation on August 30, 2026, and its subsequent extension on September 21, violates the mandatory stipulations of Section 145(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The plaintiff contends that the executive omission deprived the National Assembly of the statutory basis to pass a concurrent resolution empowering Vice President Shettima to assume the executive authority of the state in the capacity of Acting President, describing the scenario as an unlawful and undemocratic breach of constitutional governance.
The AAC is equally urging the court to declare that the National Assembly acted unconstitutionally by failing to invoke the remedial mechanisms of Section 145(2) of the Constitution to pass an enabling resolution elevating Shettima to Acting President after President Tinubu’s physical absence from Nigeria exceeded the 21-day statutory threshold without official transmission.
In addition to declaratory reliefs, the plaintiff is praying for an order of perpetual injunction restraining President Tinubu, and all subsequent presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from proceeding on foreign vacation or medical leave without strictly transmitting written declarations to the federal legislature as commanded by the supreme law.
In a 30-paragraph affidavit in support of the originating summons, deposed to by the National Secretary of the AAC, Oshiokhue Philip Ikpeminoghena, the party averred that the President traveled to the United Kingdom and France for private vacation while leaving governance in a constitutional vacuum, extending his stay indefinitely without providing cogent justifications to the electorate.
The deponent further averred that the Senate President, Senator Akpabio, abandoned his statutory obligation to reconvene the federal legislature and address the governance void, choosing instead to embark on personal travel to the Prayer Ground of Saint Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.
The legal challenge expands the growing political friction surrounding President Tinubu’s prolonged stay abroad, coming on the heels of formal condemnations by the Nigeria Democratic Congress and criticisms by former Anambra State governor Peter Obi over the President’s consecutive absences from the United Nations General Assembly.
The Federal High Court registry is expected to assign the constitutional matter to a trial judge in the coming days, with hearing notices to be served on the Attorney-General of the Federation and the presiding officers of the National Assembly.
