TITUS ELEWEKE l Tuesday, June 05, 2018
ABUJA, Nigeria – A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja today struck out a suit brought before it by the Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative (ASRADI), requesting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disclose the cost of President Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign treatment in London. The trial Judge, Justice John Tsoho, in a judgment, he delivered said the plaintiff/applicant’s request were misconceived, misguided and bound to fail.
The Incorporated Trustees of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative (ASRADI) led by its Executive Director, Adeolu Oyinlola, had, approached the court for an order to compel the CBN and its Governor, to provide information on the amount released for Buhari’s medical treatment in London and the amount paid on behalf of the Nigerian government as parking fees for keeping the presidential aircraft and crew in the UK while the President’s treatment lasted.
The CBN and its Governor, Godwin Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF).are joined as respondents in the suit.
Justice Tsoho held that information on the health of the President, which the plaintiff sought to have, is considered personal, stating that the plaintiff has not placed any evidence before the court to show that the President has consented to making public information about his health.
Justice Tsoho also said the plaintiff was not entitled to any damage because he did not proved that he had suffered any personal loss as result and therefore dismissed the suit, having held earlier that the suit was properly filed before the court.
The applicant in the suit, numbered, FHC/ABJ/CS/1142/2017 wants the court to declare that the refusal of the respondents to provide the information requested in a letter dated 19th October, 2017, “amounted to a wrongful denial of information and a flagrant violation of the provisions of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011.”
Responding to the submission of the 1st and 2nd respondents that his letter has been forwarded to the office of the Chief of Staff to President Buhari for necessary action, Chukwuwinke Okafor, who represented the applicant told the court that the letter forwarded to the presidency was the one dated 29th August, 2017 and not the one before the court dated 19th October, 2017.
Counsel to the 1st and 2nd respondents, Babafemi Durojaiye, said there was no difference between the applicant’s letters of 29th August and 19th October. While stating that there may have been some mistake somewhere, the lawyer, insisted that what was sent to the Chief of Staff to the president was the letter of 19th October, 2017.
Durojaiye, further told the court that the applicant in his claim, contravened section 136 of the Evidence Act, noting that though President Buhari was out of the country for 103 days, the applicant did not show any evidence that the president’s aircraft was parked at the Stansted Airport in the United Kingdom while President Buhari’s medical treatment lasted.
L. A. Amegor, counsel to the AGF, in a notice of preliminary objection urged the court to dismiss the applicant’s suit on the grounds that the suit was status barred and that the suit was initiated without due regards to the law. While claiming that the applicant failed to disclose any cause of action against the 3rd respondent, Amegor, urged the court to dismiss the suit or strike out the name of the AGF, a prayer which the court granted
