A High Court sitting in Effurun, Delta State, has dismissed the suit seeking the enforcement of fundamental rights filed against a former minister of state for education, Kenneth Gbagi.

Gbagi had been alleged to have stripped naked four of his staff members and took photos of them at his Signatious Hotel, Warri.

Delivering Judgement on Monday, the presiding Judge, Justice Emmanuel Dolor, said that the suit, marked EHC/FHR/79/2020, lacked merit and could not hold water.

The judge, declared that what must be appreciated by all and sundry, “is that the spirit and driving principles of the fundamental rights enforcement regime in Nigeria may be liberal, but they are by no means laissez faire or wishy-washy, for were they so, constitutional liberties themselves would be imperilled and could not be guaranteed in the long run.

“For N3bn suit, the applicant did too little and should have been more painstaking, clinical and intentional in her approach to the case; after all, time does not really run against an intending applicant in fundamental rights actions.

“In the light of the foregoing, the substantive issue for determination which I set out to resolve at the outset of this judgment shall be resolved against the applicant, and it is hereby so resolved, because I specifically find out that none of the applicant’s fundamental rights has been, is being or is likely to be infringed upon by any of the respondents, and I so hold.

“The application filed by the applicant for the enforcement of her fundamental rights is hereby dismissed for lack of merit,” he said.

Meanwhile, our correspondent learnt that the criminal proceeding against Gbagi had opened at the federal and state high courts in Asaba.