Gov Nyesom Wike. Facebook
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday voided an alleged plan by the police to acquire a search warrant to look the residences of Governor Nyesom Wike of River State in Abuja and different elements of the nation.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed in a judgment dominated that a courtroom course of similar to a search warrant couldn't be issued a governor similar to Wike who enjoys immunity underneath part 308 of the Constitution.
Last yr, Wike sued the police over an alleged transfer to look his home in Abuja for big money sums believed to be proceeds of crime.
Also joined as defendants within the go well with filed are the Inspector-General of Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Department of State Services.
The governor stated he had it on good authority that the defendants had already or have been making strikes to acquire a search warrant to hold out the deliberate search on his dwelling at Ortega Close, Hassan Usman Katsina Street, Asokoro Extension, Abuja.
According to him, the defendants have been additionally making strikes to look his different homes, together with these in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
But he contended within the go well with filed earlier than the Federal High Court in Abuja via his lawyer, Sylva Ogwemoh (SAN), that such a search would violate his immunity as a sitting governor.
He needs the courtroom to restrain the defendants from giving impact to the alleged deliberate search of his houses.
His lawyer, Ogwemoh, claimed that such a search couldn't be carried out by the defendants with out violating Section 308 of the structure, which conferred immunity on his consumer as a governor.
Wike requested the courtroom to find out ‘whether the defendants can by the combined effect of section 308 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and sections 149 (1) and 150 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 apply for, obtain, issue or, in any manner or form, effectively execute a search warrant’ on the residences of Wike.