Court throws out suit challenging Hameed Ali’s appointment as Customs boss

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja has thrown out the suit filed by a major importer, Chief Ifeanyinchukwu Okonkwo challenging the appointment of a retired Army Colonel, Hameed Ibrahim Ali as the Customs Comptroller General.

The court held that the litigant who is an Anambra based businessman lacks locus standi to file the suit challenging legality or otherwise of President Muhammadu Buhari to make the appointment.

Ruling on a preliminary objection filed by Buhari, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba said the litigant failed to show what he lost with the appointment than any other Nigerian.

The Judge agreed with the President that the litigant also failed to disclose any cause of action against the defendant as he was neither a customs officer nor an aspirant to the office of the Comptroller General of the customs.

The judge terminated the case by striking it out on the ground that the plaintiff lacked locus standi to institute it.

President Muhammadu Buhari had last week objected to hearing of the suit instituted against him by a businessman to challenge the legality or otherwise of the appointment of a retired Army Colonel, Hameed Ibrahim Ali as the Customs boss.

Buhari had asked the federal high court in Abuja to decline to entertain the suit on the ground that the litigant Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo lacked the locus standi to institute the case against him.

In a notice of preliminary objection, the President had claimed that the plaintiff failed to disclose his locus standi to initiate and maintain the court case as constituted and conceived.

In the notice of objection filed by Mr. Chiesonu Okpoko, the President insisted that the glaring failure of Okonkwo to make his locus standi known has robbed the court of jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

The objection to hearing of the suit was also hinged on the fact that the statement of claim of the plaintiff did not disclose any cause of action against the President and the three others.

Besides, the objection notice contended that the case of the plaintiff who claimed to be a tax payer, activist has become a mere academic exercise or raises only hypothetical questions with the appointment in dispute having been made almost two years ago.

The litigant had sued the President and the Finance Minister over an alleged unlawful appointment of a retired army Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali as Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service.

Plaintiff who claimed to be an importer of goods and services based in Onitsha, Anambra State asked the court to reverse the appointment of Colonel Ali (rtd) as customs boss on the ground that it violated sections 5, 147, 148, 151 and 171 of the 1999 constitution as amended.

He is also prayed the court to issue an order stopping the Minister of Finance and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) from recognizing or further recognizing the ex army chief as the Chief Executive of the Custom.

Plaintiff further prayed the court to issue another order restraining Col. Ali (rtd) from holding himself out or further parading himself as the Comptroller General of the Customs.

In the suit with No FHC/ABJ/CS/813/2015, Okonkwo asked the court to interpret sections 5, 147, 148, 151 an 171 of the 1999 constitution and the Custom and Excise Management Act Cap 45 Volume 4 and the scheme of service for customs service as they affect the appointment of Comptroller General for the Nigeria Customs Service.

But, the President in the objection to the suit claimed that he exercised his executive powers pursuant to sections 5 and 171 of the 1999 Constitution in appointing the ex army officer as the head of the Nigeria Customs Service.

He said the litigant challenging the legality of the appointment was not a staff of the Nigeria Customs Service or any public service of the federation hence, he has no locus standi to sue on it.