TheCable

A federal high court in Abuja has dismissed the suit filed by Abba Maina, an alleged Boko Haram financier, against the Department of State Services (DSS).

Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, on Tuesday, dismissed the suit for being an abuse of court process because a similar suit is before the FCT high court.

In September 2022, Maina was arrested by DSS operatives at a bank branch in Abuja.

The DSS alleged that the suspect was providing financial support to Boko Haram members and that he was arrested when he went to the bank to question why his account was frozen.

According to NAN, DSS said it received intelligence that plans were being made by one Kaura, the armourer of Boko Haram, to send N10 million for the relocation of some members of the terror group from Borno to Kaduna.

To facilitate the payment of the money, Kaura was said to have requested for bank account details from one Baba Guraba and Bayero, who were Boko Haram commanders positioned around Bama LGA in Borno.

Bayero sent UBA account details belonging to one Basiru Hassan and GTB account details belonging to Maina.

It alleged that while N6 million was paid into Hassan’s account, N4 million was paid into Maina’s account.

In November 2022, Maina filed two suits at the federal high court in Abuja and FCT high court challenging his detention by the secret police.

THE RULING

In his ruling, Ekwo said instituting different actions between the same parties simultaneously in different courts, even though on different grounds, amounted to an abuse of court process.

The judge agreed with DSS that the fundamental rights suit before the court is similar to the suit filed at the FCT high court.

“The applicant could have clearly avoided this situation by taking one of the options available to him by law, exhausting one remedy before going for another, assuming that the next action would not be caught by principle of res judicata,” the judge ruled.

“Consequently, nothing else is worthy of any consideration where a suit is found to be an abuse of process of court.

“It is on this premise that I make an order dismissing this case for being an abuse of process of court.”