The Benue State government received High Court approval on Wednesday to withdraw 32 automobiles gifted to former Governor Samuel Ortom and his deputy, Benson Abounu, before they left office.
According to Naija News, Justice Theresa Igoche of the Benue State High Court, sitting in Makurdi Tuesday, stated the Governor Hyacinth Alia-led Benue state has the administrative right and power to withdraw the aforementioned vehicles.
Justice Igoche dismissed the complaint filed by Ortom and his deputy, Abounu, against Governor Alia on the grounds that it was speculative and sought to limit the governor’s constitutional rights.
Ortom and Abounu disputed the claimed removal of 32 vehicles and properties purportedly gifted to them and their cabinet colleagues by the Benue State Executive Council before they left office in May in a suit numbered MHC/199/2023.
The duo claimed that such a retrieval operation constituted a constitutional violation of their collective right to own property that was legally and validly vested in them.
However, according to a statement issued by Government House on Wednesday, the state government’s counsel, Governor Alia, and the Chairman of the Assets Recovery Committee, Mohammed Ndarani (SAN), who appeared alongside Vershima Akaangee and Raphael Ashwe, raised and argued a Notice of Preliminary Objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain, hear, and determine the suit on the grounds that it was speculative.
Ndarani said in the statement that the action failed to identify the cars and goods allegedly taken from the plaintiffs.
He stated that the action also tried to limit the governor’s proper exercise of his powers to create relevant committees to assist in state management.
Ndarani also claimed that the committee’s terms of reference for determining the scope of their powers and determining whether the committee had overstepped its authority were not before the court.
He also stated that the committee was not demonstrated to have completed its work to definitively establish whether they had permanently taken custody of any vehicles, therefore temporary taking of custody of vehicles is permitted under the constitution for investigation purposes.
Ndarani also emphasized that if such “frivolous” lawsuits were permitted to continue, growth across the country would be substantially impeded.
However, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Douglas Pepe (SAN), who appeared alongside Paul Sule, contended that the plaintiffs’ cause of action was viable.
Pepe further claimed that over 32 automobiles supplied to the plaintiffs by the Benue State Executive Council before they left office on May 29 had been taken control of by Governor Alia’s government, an affront to the plaintiffs’ right to property, according to the lawyer.
According to the statement obtained by SaharaReporters, the court “upheld the preliminary objection of the Defendants on two major grounds that, the suit was speculative for failing to establish a cause of action and that the suit indeed sought to delimit the constitutional powers of the Defendants as donated unto them by Section 5(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and she consequently struck out the suit.”
