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Justice Binta Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory High Court has thrown out a fundamental rights enforcement suit brought by Lady Chinyere Lilian Amuchinwa against former Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim, the Inspector-General of Police, and four others.
Listed alongside Ohakim as respondents were the Police Service Commission (PSC), SP Amina Omudu, ASP Bartholomew Ali, and Chinedu Okparaeke.
Amuchinwa had approached the court alleging that Ohakim and another party influenced the police to detain her at the Force Headquarters in Abuja back in July 2021, although the precise circumstances leading to her detention were not detailed in her filings.
In their reply, Ohakim, the IGP and the others challenged the suit as devoid of cause of action and an abuse of the process of the court, through a preliminary objection, arguing that the suit was filed after other similar suits were being pursued elsewhere by the claimant against the same defendants.
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The court observed that Amuchinwa had previously filed similar suits at various levels of the judiciary, including a fundamental rights case before the Imo State High Court in Owerri, an appeal at the Owerri Division of the Court of Appeal, and criminal charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja. All these cases, the court noted, were either dismissed or struck out.
Delivering judgment, which was certified on June 26, 2025, Justice Binta Mohammed ruled that the evidence before the court clearly showed that the claimant had initiated multiple suits revolving around the same facts and parties. She concluded that this amounted to an abuse of judicial process.
he judge stated that, in light of the unchallenged and uncontroverted evidence presented in the case, it had been established that the applicant had engaged in a multiplicity of actions involving the same facts and parties, which amounted to an abuse of court process. The ruling was given in favour of former Governor Ohakim, SP Omudu, ASP Ali, and Chinedu Okparaeke.
