NDDC appointments: Court strikes out suit against FG
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Abuja—A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, struck out a suit against the Federal Government, challenging the alleged uneven distribution of appointments in Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
Delivering judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo, struck out on grounds that the plaintiff, Mrs. Rita Lori Ogbebor, a woman activist and businesswoman, had no legal right to file the suit.
Justice Ekwo held that Section 2 of the NDDC Act 2000, was specific that “any legal action on any infraction in matters relating to NDDC could only be filed by corporate persons and not individuals such as the plaintiff.’
According to the judge, the law was clear that the power to file any case to challenge infractions in the NDDC cannot be delegated by proxy to anybody.
The plaintiff, who claimed to be a stakeholder from Itsekiri extraction of Delta State, had dragged the Federal Government, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the NDDC to the court.
Joined in the suit as respondents were the Senate, Mr Pius Odubu and Olorogun Bernard-Okumagba.
The woman activist prayed the court to invoke Sections 4 and 12 of the NDDC Act to order the Federal Government to appoint indigenes of oil-producing areas of Delta as chairman in compliance with Section 4 of the law.
But the defendants argued that Section 2 of the NDDC Act was specific in stating that only corporate persons could institute actions where infractions occurred.
The judge upheld the arguments of the defendants and said that the plaintiff had no locus standi to have instituted the suit.
He opined that if those empowered by law to challenge infractions in the NDDC appointments refused or neglected to act; then they did not consider it an infraction.
“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,” the judge ruled.
