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From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Presbyterian Church of Nigeria has sued Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, for taking over its hospital.
Also joined in the suit before an Abakaliki High Court are the attorney general and commissioner for justice and the Ebonyi State House of Assembly as second and third defendants.
The church in suit no HAB/120/2020 is seeking N5 billion for general damages from the governor for the takeover and shutting down of the Presbyterian Joint Hospital located in the governor’s hometown of Uburu.
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.
It said the action followed 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 dismissed government’s claim, arguing that the lease was still subsisting and had not expired.
The church further claimed the land upon which the hospital was built was not leased from the entire Uburu community but from specific families.
The church said the three lands upon which the hospital was built owned by some families in Uburu and leased in 1917, 1923, and 1958 were still subsisting till 2026 and 2052 and for as long as it was being used for the purpose it was leased respectively.
