Court dismisses Ortom suit on vehicle seizure, says action speculative

The Benue State High Court in Makurdi, the state capital on Wednesday dismissed a suit filed by former Governor Samuel Ortom and his then deputy, Benson Abounu, over some vehicles retrieved from them after leaving office by the state government.

Delivering the judgement on Wednesday, the judge, Theresa Igoche, struck out the suit filed against the incumbent Governor Hyacinth Alia, and the state government, for being speculative and seeking to limit the powers of a democratically elected governor of a state.

Igoche added, “This court and in fact all other courts will not act on speculation. In my view, this suit is premature at this stage as there are no sufficient facts to support the reliefs sought in this originating summons.

“Even on the ground two of the grounds upon which this application is predicted, I agree with the applicants counsel that the suit as presently constituted aims at limiting the constitutional powers of the Governor granted by section 5 of the Constitution.

“This case is not saying that the governor’s exercise of powers cannot be questioned at all.

“What I am saying in the instance case is that the plaintiffs have not brought sufficient evidence of any act of the defendants to warrant the determination of the questions set out in the reliefs in the originating summons,” the judge ruled.

In July, the asset recovery committee set up by Hyacinth Alia, governor of Benue, had raided an automobile shop allegedly owned by Ortom.

Alia had accused Ortom’s administration of looting, alleging that he “met no single car or truck in government house”.

The committee was said to have seized some vehicles during the operation and used towing vans to pull out others, after attempts to drive them away failed.

In the suit marked MHC/199/2023, the former governor and his deputy through their lawyer, Douglas Pepe, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), submitted that over 32 vehicles donated to the plaintiffs by the Benue state executive council were retrieved before the expiration of their tenure on May 29, 2023.

The counsel argued that it was an affront to their constitutional right to ownership.

However, in a preliminary objection, Mohammed Ndarani, counsel to Benue governor, the state government and the asset recovery committee, prayed the court to dismiss the suit.

Ndarani challenged the jurisdiction of the court to entertain, hear and determine the suit on the grounds that it was speculative as it failed to identify the cars and properties allegedly taken from the plaintiffs.

He submitted that the aim of the suit was to restrict the governor’s use of his executive authority to form committees that would be useful in the state’s administration.