The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday dismissed a suit seeking a refund of all Rivers’ monies in the Consolidated Revenue Fund released, appropriated and expended by the Sole Administrator, retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas. Justice James Omotosho recently ruled that the Federal High Court (FHC) has no jurisdiction to determine the subject matter, since it stemmed from the presidential proclamation of the state of emergency.
Upholding the objection raised by lawyers to the defendants, including Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, who represented Ibas in the case, Justice Omotosho declared that only the Supreme Court has exclusive and original jurisdiction to determine the validity of the declaration of an emergency rule by the president.
According to him, the counsel to the claimant should have done due diligence to determine which court has jurisdiction over certain cases before filing it, to avoid wasting the high court’s precious time.
Justice Omotosho stated that the court already has a lot of cases to attend to; therefore, its time must be respected.
“I must not fail to say here that counsel to the claimant ought to make proper research regarding his case before filing the same.
He must make diligent research as to which court has jurisdiction and the necessary parties in the suit before filing his action.
Counsel has the duty to be professional in making such research rather than spending time spreading misinformation or painting the wrong picture on social media and other broadcast media.
This court is saddled with a lot of cases, including commercial, civil and criminal matters, which makes its time very precious.
Filing suits which are void abinitio is inimical to the course of justice and the court can suo motu nullify such void suit in order to save its time.
I therefore hold that a void process cannot activate the jurisdiction of this court.
In final analysis, the subject matter of this suit is outside the jurisdiction of this court and this court will decline jurisdiction over same,” he said
The judge further declined to transfer the case to the Port Harcourt judicial division as part of the reliefs sought by the plaintiff.
He concluded by saying that rather than make any transfer that will not yield a tangible result, he’ll dismiss the suit.
“This court having held that only the Supreme Court can hear and determine matters relating to Proclamation of State of Emergency, it would be totally worthless to then transfer the matter to another judicial division which equally lacks subject matter jurisdiction.
Since this court has no power to transfer this matter to the Supreme Court, the proper course of action is to refrain from making any other transfer and to strike out the entire processes for lack of jurisdiction.
Consequently, issue two is resolved against the claimant.
Consequently, this court hereby declines jurisdiction over this suit and the originating process filed is hereby declared void as same ought not to have been filed before this court,” he added.
