By Brave Dickson
A federal high court in Port Harcourt on Wednesday dismissed a motion brought by the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) and awarded a cost of N20,000 against the hospital in favour of Mr Mark Lenu who had instituted a suit against the hospital in pursuance to his right as enshrined in the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
You recall that the plaintiff (Mark Lenu) had made an application for information in respect to the names of consultants and medical doctors that are working as staff of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
The plaintiff had also requested for the salaries that UPTH received as budget in favour of its staff from federal government in 2017/2018 and further requested for the amount of money the 1st and 2nd defendants (UPTH and its Chief Medical Doctor) remitted as unspent budget being part of the said money.
In an interview with our correspondent, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Barr Kingdom Chukwuezie said: “The 1st and 2nd defendants only gave out the list of consultants but declined other request, insisting that they can not give out those information which prompted my client to institute the suit in the first place at the federal high court.
“While the proceeding was pending, the 1st and 2nd defendants now came to the court and brought a motion asking the court to extend time for them to now transmit that application which will now provide answers in respect to the amount of money that was paid by the federal government to the hospital for its staff within the period of 2017 and 2018.
“Now, they said that they needed time for them to transmit the information to the ministry of finance whom they said is domiciled with respect to these figures and amounts. The plaintiff opposed to that application in principle that by the Freedom of Information Act that they can only ask for an extension of time, three days after they have received that request. And they received that request on the 5th day of April, 2019 and this is the 6th day of November, 2019 which is almost five months and the suit has commenced.
“So, the plaintiff told the court that the court can not grant that application. Apart from the fact that the time has elapsed, granting this application would be like the court is amending the FoI Act and that there is no basis for such application.
“More so, that this hearing had been stalled on three occasions on account of this same motion that they are talking about. That the plaintiff is of the view that this motion is intended to delay, frustrate or stall again the hearing of that suit which was slated for November 6 and of course that motion stalled the hearing for yesterday. Now the court agreed with the plaintiff and held that the application lacks merit and is dismissed with the cost of N20,000 against the 1st and 2nd defendants in favour of the plaintiff.”
On his part, counsel to the 1st and 2nd defendants, W.F Peters said: “Yesterday actually, the matter was fixed for hearing. Some information we should have supplied them were filed out of time, pursuant to the FoI Act. So we filed a motion for the extension of time to regularize those information we want to forward to them.
“But to the wisdom of the court, our motion was struck out with cost. However, we are still going to regularize the process and go on with the substantive hearing of the suit come 13th day of November, 2019.”
