Court dismisses suit challenging appointment of NDDC chairman

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed a suit challenging the appointment of Mr. Chiedu Ebie as Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by President Bola Tinubu.

The suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/28/2024 was filed by oil-producing communities in Bayelsa and Delta States.

The communities had approached the court to nullify what they termed as President Tinubu’s illegal appointment in the NDDC.

The plaintiffs alleged that the appointee was not qualified to head the NDDC board because he is not from “the oil-producing area with the highest quantum of oil production.”

Tinubu, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Tunji Fagbemi (SAN) the NDDC, and Ebie were listed as respondents in the suit.

The judge dismissed the suit on the ground that it had become statute-barred.

READ ALSO: Delta youths demand appointment of indegene as NDDC Chairman, MD

She held that the plaintiffs failed to institute the action within three months after President Tinubu made the appointment as prescribed by the law.

The judge said while Ebie was appointed to head the NDDC on August 29, 2023, the plaintiffs filed the suit on January 11, stressing that Sections 24(1) and (2) of the NDDC Act placed a limitation on the litigants.

The judge, who declined to sack Ebie, also held that the suit was not properly commenced as the plaintiffs failed to seek the leave of the court to apply for a judicial review of President Tinubu’s action.

She declared that since the suit was not properly initiated, the court, therefore, lacked the requisite jurisdiction to grant any of the reliefs that were sought by the plaintiffs.

She, consequently, dismissed the suit and held that all the issues that were raised by the plaintiffs had become academic.

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