By Amos Aar
THE Makurdi Division of the National Industrial Court presided over by the Honourable Justice I. J. Essien on Wednesday foreclosed defence against the Benue State Government, Governor Samuel Ortom and the Ministry of Justice following their failure to defend the suit after several opportunities to do so.
The suit No. NKN/MKD/59/2017 in which the Benue State Government, Governor Samuel Ortom and the Benue State Ministry of Justice, are standing as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively, was filed by four sacked civil servants serving at Government House, Makurdi, challenging what they alleged was the unlawful termination of their appointments in 2017 by the Benue State Government under Governor Ortom over alleged theft of a plasma television set and two generator batteries from Government House, Makurdi.
The plaintiffs, Agbo Lucky, Yaasa Simon Igbalagh, Godwin Gbande and Terver Gbakaan filed the suit on August 30, 2017.
When the matter was called on Wednesday (January 8, 2023) for further hearing, counsel to the defendants, Mike Assoh Esq., represented by M. C. Iorsue Esq., could not present the principal witness, Mr Kenneth Poor. He said the witness was “lying sick in a hospital in Abuja” for a long time and could not come.
But counsel to the plaintiffs, D. D. Aboshi Dogara Esq., told the presiding judge that it was the 8th time that the defendants’ counsel had failed to bring the witness. Aboshi recalled that the plaintiffs closed their case since 2021 while the defendants were given the last opportunity since March, 2022 to present the witness but had failed to do up to Wednesday’s sitting. Aboshi therefore prayed the court to foreclose the defence from further delaying the course of justice.
Responding, the Honourable Justice Essien held that the defendants by their action are bent on putting “the matter in jeopardy”. He asked the defendants to bring another witness if available.
Counsel to the defendants instead prayed the court to give him another last opportunity to go and meet with his clients before he would bring another witness on another date to replace Mr Poor whom he said was lying sick in an Abuja hospital.
Justice Essien recalled that he granted the last adjournment for the defendants to provide the witness when their counsel told the court on March 15, 2022 that the witness, Mr Poor, had retired from service and they could not lay their hands on him anywhere as “all efforts to locate him had failed”.
The judge further recalled that he had adjourned the matter to November 1, 2022 “out of sympathy” to enable the defendants to bring the witness but had failed to appear in court.
“I still adjourned the matter for them to go and bring their witnesses. Today, you are here and you are telling us another story entirely. So, if you are not ready to go on, I will foreclose you”, Justice Essien told counsel to the defendants, as he declined to grant the defendants’ prayer for a last opportunity to bring witness, thereby foreclosing the defence and adjourned the case till April 12, 2023 for parties to present their final addresses.
National Record had reported on November 3, 2022 that the Plaintiffs cried out seriously about the minimal progress on their case and they appealed to the court to expedite the processes to grant them justice before Governor Ortom exits office on May 29, 2023.
