Court strikes out suit seeking S/East’s inclusion on National Lottery Board

A Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a suit seeking to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a member from the Southeast geopolitical zone to the governing board of the National Lottery Commission.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo held that the plaintiff, Mr. Chidiebere Nwachukwu, commenced the suit via a defective originating summons.

Chidiebere, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/518/2021 filed through his counsel Oloruntoba Elisha, told the court that the governing board of the National Lottery Commission had two members each from the Northcentral and the Southwest geopolitical zones, leaving out the Southeastern geopolitical zone.

He prayed the court for an order dissolving the composition/constitution of the National Lottery Commission’s governing board by the President for being “in gross violation of sections 2(2) (C) of the National Lottery Act, 2005 and section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (As Amended).

He further prayed for an order directing the President – 1st Defendant – to reconstitute the governing board of the National Lottery Commission – 3rd Defendant “and appoint a member from the Southeast geopolitical zone in line with the combined provisions of sections 2(2) (C) of the National Lottery Act, 2005 and section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (As Amended).”

But the 1st to 3rd defendants represented by Feyisara Titiloye for 1st and 2nd defendants and Obumselu Ifunanya for the 3rd defendant opposed him.

They filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection (NPO) dated the 27th day of August 2021 praying the court to dismiss the suit.

The defendants argued among others that The Plaintiff lacked the locus standi to institute this matter.

They further contended that the Plaintiffs’ Originating Summons was incompetent, was never issued by a Judge or the Registrar of the Court as required by the Rules of the Court.

They also added that the action was statute barred, and the court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Delivering judgment on February 22, 2022, Justice Taiwo upheld the defendants’ NPO.

The judge held: “The originating process before me is not sealed and therefore cannot be said to have been issued.

“In the light of this other grounds of objection and indeed the substantive matter which I have identified, most unfortunately, cannot be decided any longer by this court in view of my finding that the originating summons was not sealed and therefore incompetent and incurably bad. I cannot decide any issue on a defective originating summons. I cannot be sentimental as being urged on the court by the Plaintiff’s counsel. Sentiments have no place in law. One cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. It will be pointless to proceed beyond this point. This is the end of the road for this suit as presently constituted.

“The jurisdiction of the court does not extend to administering medicine to a cadaver. However, the law does not permit me to dismiss this suit and as such I will do what the law permits and it is to strike out this matter for the reasons stated above. This suit is accordingly struck out. This is the judgement of the court.”