Fresh Trouble Hit Ebonyi Governor, Umahi
Information reaching Naija News House says that Fresh Trouble Hit Ebonyi Governor, Umahi
All seem not to be well with the present administration in the State, as Presbyterian Chụrch of Nigeria, weekend dragged Governor David Umahi before a State High court for taking over its hospital.
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. The church in suit no: HAB/120/2020 is seeking a N5bn for general damages from the Governor for the takeover and shutting down of the Presbyterian Joint Hospital located in the Governor’s hometown of Ụbụrụ.
It said the government’s action was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and amounts to trespassing. The State government had in 2020 announced the immediate shutdown and subsequent takeover of the Hospital.
The government said the action is sequel to a petition by the host community over the expiration of the church’s 100-year lease.
The community, according to the state government, had also alleged misappropriation of funds, high medical charges on indigent patients, use of obsolete equipment in the treatment of patients and non-presence of qualified doctors, and urged the state government to take over the management of the hospital. But the church in the suit disagreed with the government’s position arguing that the lease was still subsisting and had not expired.
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 are still subsisting till 2026, 2052 and for as long as it is being used for the purpose it was leased respectively. They, therefore, prayed the court to declare that its leasehold interest over.
Ebonyi Governor
