Justice Inyang Ekwo of Federal High Court Abuja has struck out a suit challenging President Muhammadu Buhari for an alleged lopsidedness in the appointment into the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC.
The Suit instituted by an Abuja-based businesswoman and NDDC stakeholder chief Mrs. Rita Lori Ogbebor was struck out by the court because the plaintiff has no legal rights to file the case.
Justice Inyang Ekwo in his judgment on Thursday held that section 2 of the NDDC Act 2000 was specific that any legal action on any infraction in matters relating to NDDC can only be instituted by corporate persons and not individuals such as the plaintiff.
The Judge held that the law was clear that the power to file any case to challenge infractions in the NDDC cannot be delegated by proxy to anybody.
Mrs. Ogbebor who claimed to be a stakeholder from Itsekiri extraction in Delta State had dragged President Muhammadu Buhari, NDDC, the Nigerian Senate, Dr. Pius Odubu, Olorogun Bernard Okumagba, and the Attorney General of the Federation before the Federal High Court.
The woman activist prayed the court to invoke Sections 4 and 12 of the NDDC Act to order the President to appoint indigenes of oil-producing areas of Delta State as Chairman, in specific compliance with section 4.
The plaintiff also prayed for another order compelling President Buhari to appoint Itsekiri indigene from oil-producing areas of Delta State as the Managing Director of the NDDC.
She also asked that the court make a declaration that President Buhari is under a legal obligation to comply with all laws relating to appointments in the NDDC.
However, the defendants in the suit filed preliminary objections and challenged the legal right of the plaintiff to have instituted the action.
Justice Inyang in the judgment Ekwo upheld the preliminary objections of the defendants and held that the plaintiff lacked locus and legal right to have brought the case before the court.
Justice Ekwo held that if those empowered by law to challenge infractions in the NDDC appointments, refuse or neglect to act, then they do not consider it a material infraction or infraction at all.
Justice Ekwo said, “the consequence of lack of locus standi is dire and the courts have been unwavering in making pronouncements on it. It is the law that the claim must be struck out when a plaintiff is found to be lacking locus standi. I am bound to follow the law, and I hereby make an order striking out the case of the plaintiff”.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff while reacting to the judgment lamented the plight of the people of Itsekiri extraction and vowed to challenge the judgment at the Supreme Court.
Dominica Nwabufo
