The Presbyterian Chụrch of Nigeria, has instituted a case in an Abakaliki court challenging the takeover of one of its hospitals located in Uburu, the Governor’s hometown.
Also joined in the suit are the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Ebonyi state House of Assembly as second and third defendants.
In the suit with number: HAB/120/2020, the Church is asking for N5bn as general damages from Umahi for the takeover and shutting down of the Presbyterian Joint Hospital, Uburu. It said the government’s action was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and amounts to trespassing.
The State government had in 2020 announced that it was taking over the hospital following a petition by the host community that the 100-year lease for the land had expired. The government, had also hinged it’s action on allegations of misappropriation of funds level against the Hospital management.
The hospital authorities were also accused of high medical charges on indigent patients, use of obsolete equipment and lack of qualified doctors. But the church in the suit disagreed with the government’s position arguing that the lease was still subsisting.
The church further claimed that the lands upon which the hospital was built were not leased from the entire Uburu community but from specific families. The church said the three lands upon which the hospital was built is owned by some families in Ụbụrụ and leased in 1917, 1923, and 1958. The Church maintains that the leases are still subsisting till 2026, 2052 and for as long as it is being used for the purpose it was leased respectively.
The Church prayed the court to declare that its leasehold interest over all the hospital lands remains valid and subsisting. The church is also asking the court for a declaration that the purported takeover of its leasehold interest in the hospital lands and its hospital is unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
It is also praying the court for a declaration that the third defendant’s(Ebonyi State House of Assembly) purported revocation of the statutory right of occupancy over the land upon which the hospital is built is ultra vires the powers of the third defendant and is accordingly unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.
The Church is also praying the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the state government from taking any further moves to take over the hospital. When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, March 10, the Counsel to the Church, Uche Awa (SAN) was in court while the state government had no Lawyer to represent it.
The Judge, Justice Ken Eze however adjourned the matter to the 12th of May for pre-trial.
