Justice Obiora Egwuta ruled that El-Zakzaky and wife did not provide sufficient evidence to show that their passports were either seized, destroyed, or lost or that the NIS was unwilling to reissue them another one.
By Jeffrey Agbo
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday struck out a suit by the leader of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenah, through which they wanted the court to compel the National Immigration Service (NIS) to issue them international passports.
Justice Obiora Egwuta ruled that the applicants did not provide sufficient evidence to show that their passports were either seized, destroyed, lost or that the NIS was unwilling to reissue them another one.
Justice Egwuatu held that from the position of El-Zakzaky and his wife, it was not shown that it was the NIS who took their passports, but rather that the passports were destroyed or lost in 2015 when their residence was attacked by security operatives.
The judge, therefore, dismissed the suit.
READ ALSO:
El-Zakzaky recounts ordeal during Zaria ‘massacre’
El-Zakzaky and wife had in January 2022 filed the fundamental rights reserved enforcement suit against the NIS and its Comptroller General as first and second defendants for alleged refusal to issue new international passports to them.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/22/2022 filed by their lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), they prayed to the court to enforce their rights enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
They equally urged the court to declare that the alleged refusal of the NIS to process their travel documents to enable them to travel abroad for medical treatment was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.