Justice Peter Kekemeke of the Abuja High Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former boxing champion, Bash Ali, on the grounds that it was “statute barred.”
Ali had initiated legal proceedings against former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, alongside the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Attorney General of the Federation.
In his ruling on a preliminary objection raised by the defendants, Justice Kekemeke determined that the matter had exceeded the legal timeframe permitted for such claims, thereby rendering it invalid.
“From the piece of evidence before the court, there is none pointing that the first defendant signed a contract,” the judge stated.
He added, “The suit was filed on Oct. 10, 2021, three months before the claimant’s counter affidavit; his case did not fall into the expectation known in law, and the cause of the act accrued on May 20, 2020, is statute barred.”
Justice Kekemeke concluded that, “The notice of preliminary objection succeeds; the case is consequently struck out.”
Bash Ali had sought the court’s intervention in declaring the withdrawal of support for his proposed boxing project as unlawful.
He also requested the court to compel the first defendant to retract what he described as a defamatory publication.
In addition, the ex-boxer asked for an order directing the resumption of support for his initiative and demanded N500 billion as compensation for alleged loss of income, among other reliefs.
The case, however, will not proceed to trial following the court’s decision that it was filed outside the statutory period allowed.
