The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has asked the Abuja division of the Federal High Court to throw out the suit seeking his investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of corruption for lacking in merit.
Before the proceedings, Justice Chikere had, on October 8, granted leave, as required by law, to the plaintiff to commence the suit of “judicial review.”
This was a sequel to an ex parte application moved on behalf of the plaintiff by his lawyer, West Idahosa.
While granting the application, the judge ordered that Oshiomhole and the EFCC be served with all the processes filed in the suit.
She also ordered that the EFCC be served with the same court process, stressing that the service must be done within five days from October 9, when the order was made. But Oshiomhole, in a notice of preliminary objection hinged on 10 grounds, contended that the applicant, having failed to file the suit for judicial review within three months of the occurrence of the subject of the suit, it had become academic.
For instance, he noted that the action or inaction of the EFCC being subjected to review by the proceedings occurred on December 13, 2016, while the plaintiff only instituted the action for judicial review on June 13, 2018. He submitted that this came about 18 months after the occurrence of the alleged failure being complained about.
It was also his further arguments that the plaintiff’s right of action had become unenforceable even as the plaintiff did not disclose his legal right to file and maintain the action for judicial review, “has not shown how the actions of the second respondent/applicant affected him over and above other residents and indigenes of Edo State.”
Chikere adjourned the matter till November 19 for the hearing of the preliminary objection.
