Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, the head of the Islamic Movement, and his wife Zeenah filed a lawsuit to get the National Immigration Service (NIS) to give them international passports. The Federal High Court dismissed their case.

In a judgment on Thursday, Justice Obiora Egwuta held that the applicants did not provide sufficient evidence to show that their passports were either seized, destroyed, lost or the relevant agency was unwilling to reissue them another one.

From the perspective of the applicants, Judge Egwuatu determined that it was not demonstrated that the respondent stole their passports; rather, it was established that the passports were lost or destroyed in 2015 during a security operation attack on the applicants’ premises.

The judge accordingly dissed the suit.

El-Zakzaky and his wife had in January 2022 filed the fundamental rights reserved enforcement suit against the NIS and its Comptroller General as 1st and 2nd 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.

Oreoluwa Ojelabi

Oreoluwa is an accountant and a brand writer with a flair for journalism.