THE Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed the N8.1 billion lawsuit filed by Abdulrauf Tijani, a retired Major General against the Lagos State Government and six others over the alleged unlawful seizure of his parcel of land.
At the hearing, Justice Inyang Ekwo who presided over the matter held that the suit was not only wrongly filed, but was also defective in nature and content and was a gross abuse of the process of the court.
Justice Ekwo said the fundamental rights enforcement suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/690/2020 violated the provision of Section 63 of the Federal High Court Act, having been instituted against a serving judge of the court, who was discharging his judicial obligations.
He stated that the immunity granted a serving judge in the course of judicial functions, was not ambiguous and when a judge errs in the course of his duties, the appropriate venue to seek remedy was not a law court.
The other respondents in the suit include the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Justice Ayokunle O. Faji of the Federal High Court, Lagos, former Lagos State Attorney General, Abdulraheem Ade Ipaye, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Kasheem Adeniji, and Governor of Lagos State.
The applicant, though not a lawyer, conducted the case by himself.
Tijani had filed a suit challenging the unlawful seizure of his property by the Lagos State Government, in alleged connivance with a former Accountant General of Lagos State.
He took the case file to a Lagos State High Court before it was subsequently filed in Abuja.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.