Stella Oduah
A Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday dismissed a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by a former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, against the Attorney-General of the Federation and three others.
Justice Okon Abang, who dismissed Oduah’s suit for want of jurisdiction, ordered her to pay a cost of N15,000 to the AGF.
Oduah had filed the suit last year August, praying the court to restrain agencies of the Federal Government from questioning or prosecuting her over the purchase of two armoured BMW vehicles at a cost of N255m by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority under her watch as the Aviation minister in 2013.
In her suit, Oduah claimed to have already been probed and exonerated by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Aviation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and urged Justice Abang to declare that any further probe would amount to violating her fundamental rights.
The respondents in the suit were the AGF, the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission and the Inspector-General of Police.
Oduah alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress intended to use the respondents to persecute her, being a prominent member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
She claimed that the Federal Government had perfected plans to try prominent members of the PDP on trump-up charges in a special Lagos State High Court, so as to turn the country into a one-party state.
