Reprieve has come the way of Babatunde Fowler as a Federal High Court sitting in Kano, has dismissed a suit challenging his tenure.The court, presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa, struck out the suit when it upheld the preliminary objection filed by Fowler’s counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN) .
Allagoa had ruled that Stanley Okwara, the plaintiff, has no locus standi to file the suit..
He came to the conclusion after an hour-long review of all the legal authorities cited by Erekoro, T.A Ghazalli, counsel to the Attorney-General of the Federation, who is the second defendant; and JohnMary C. Jideobi, the plaintiff’s counsel.
Justice Allagoa said he could not see how the right of the plaintiff have been affected by the non-appointment of the Executive Chairman, FIRS after August 15.
“In this case, the plaintiff said he is an unemployed legal practitioner. How specifically that affects his rights to file this suit is not disclosed,” said the judge.
He agreed with Fowler’s counsel that the plaintiff has no cause of action and that it was fatal to his suit that he didn’t file a pre-action notice to the court, as required by the Federal Inland Revenue Establishment Act (FIRSEA) 2007. “I agree with the first defendant that the plaintiff ought to have served the defendant with a pre-action notice. Learned SAN asked the court to strike out the suit. I so hold,” Allagoa said.
