When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, March 10, 2022, counsel for the Church, Uche Awa (SAN), was in court, while the state government was not represented, after which the Judge, Justice Ken Eze, adjourned the matter to May 12, 2022, for pre-trial.
The Ebonyi State government took over the hospital from the Presbyterian Church, citing a petition by the host community over the expiration of its 100-year lease, as a reason for its action.
In a suit marked: HAB/120/2020, the Church is seeking N5 billion as general damages from Umahi for the takeover and shutting down of the Presbyterian Joint Hospital in Uburu, the governor’s hometown.
Also joined in the suit are the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the state House of Assembly, as second and third defendants.
It prayed the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the state government from making any further moves at taking over the hospital.
The Church argued that the government’s action was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and amounted to trespass, adding that the state government had announced the immediate shutdown and takeover of the hospital in 2020.
The state government also said the community accused the Church of misappropriation of funds, high medical charges on indigent patients, use of obsolete equipment in the treatment of patients and lack of qualified doctors.
It urged the state government to take over the management of the hospital, but the Church disagreed with the government’s position, arguing that the lease had not expired.
Management of the Church further claimed that the land upon which the hospital was built, was not leased from the entire Uburu Community, but from some specific families.
It said the three plots of land upon which the hospital is built and which belonged to some families in ỤUburuụ was leased in 1917, 1923 and 1958, adding that the lease agreement still subsisted till 2026, 2052 and for as long as the property is being used for the purpose it was leased.
The Church, therefore, prayed the court to declare that its leasehold interest over the hospital land, remained valid and still subsisting, maintaining that the purported takeover of its leasehold interest in the hospital land is unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect.
It also prayed the court for a declaration that the purported revocation of the statutory right of occupancy by the Ebonyi State House of Assembly over the land on which the hospital is built remained ultra vires and accordingly unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.
