Ise-Oluwa Ige
15 October 2008
The Federal Government yesterday succeeded before an Abuja high court sitting in Maitama to abort proceedings in a suit by a contractor, Mathan Nigeria Limited, seeking to reverse the revocation of a N37billion health care contract awarded by the past regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The presiding high court judge hearing the case, Justice Abubakar Umar who aborted proceedings in the case yesterday ordered a de novo trial of the case.
The Obasanjo administration had awarded the multi-billion health-care contract to Mathan Nigeria Limited for the construction of comprehensive health centres in each of the 774 local government councils in the country. But as soon as Yar'Adua administration settled down for work, it revoked the contract whose execution was already on-going.
Irked by the development, Nathan Nigeria Limited went to court to challenge the revocation of the contract.
But the Federal Government filed a preliminary objection to the hearing of the substantive suit but it lost it to the contractor.
Justice Babs Kuewumi who presiding over the case then asked the contractor to open its case while the defendants were also allowed to file their defence.
Almost immediately, the contractor opened its case and closed it while virtually all the defendants had closed their cases before the Attorney-General of the Federation, Andoakaa (SAN) woke up again and brought a fresh preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the trial judge to sit on the matter.
But Mathan Nigeria Limited objected to the move by the Federal Government saying it could not come back before the trial court to challenge its jurisdiction for the second time.
According to its counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), he said there was no way the Federal Government could come back before the trial court to challenge the jurisdiction of the trial judge to entertain the suit except on appeal.
He had to file an objection to the fresh preliminary objection by the Federal Government to the hearing of the suit.
He had told the court that allowing the Federal Government to move the objection at all would amount to allowing it have a second bite at the cherry.
Ruling on the objection yesterday, the court said that the application by Awomolo (SAN) on behalf of the contractor was unknown to law.
Justice Umar said that since he was not the judge that started the case, he said the proper thing to do was to start the case de novo.
He consequently set aside all previous proceedings in the case handled by him and ordered a de novo hearing in the case.
He also okayed the Federal Government's request to move fresh preliminary objection challenging hearing of the substantive suit.
Vanguard recalls that the contractor for the project, Mathan Nigeria Ltd. had filed the suit praying among other reliefs, an order setting aside the December 10, 2007 decision of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) revoking the contract.
Mathan's Managing Director, Chief Athan Nneji, had testified before the court that the contract award followed due process and there was no justification for its revocation.
The contractor had asked the court to declare that FEC acted in excess of the power given to it by the 1999 Constitution in revoking the contract.
Defendants to the suit are the Attorney-General of the Federation (A-GF), the National Economic Council (NEC), Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) and Bank PHB.
The administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo had approved the project for all the 774 local government councils to improve accessibility to health at the grass roots.
The project, awarded for over N37 billion was to be contractor financed while payment was to be made instalmentally by direct deduction from the monthly allocation due to each local government council.
The project was to be completed in six months while payment was to be made in ten instalments.
The National Economic Council (NEC) under the President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration, however, revoked the contract on Dec. 10, 2007.
The contractors had filed respective suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja , challenging the revocation of the contract.
They contended that the revocation of the contract was unconstitutional, null and void and a violation of their rights.
The contractors are seeking the court order setting aside the purported termination of the contract.
In the affidavits supporting the respective suit, the plaintiffs said that the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in February, 2006, entered into an agreement with Mathan for the construction and equipping of the health centres.
The Federal Government was said to have approved the agreement between ALGON and Mathan under certain conditions which were met by the parties.
The plaintiffs said that pursuant to the agreement, Mathan awarded the contract for the construction of each of the health centres at the cost of N28, 321,651.
"Upon the collection of mobilisation fee from Mathan, we commenced work and have attained 50 per cent completion of the project in each of the local governments," they said.
They argued that as the sub-contractor directly handling the projects they were not afforded the opportunity to make any representation before the purported termination of the contract.
"Mathan has failed to make further payment for the completion of the project on the ground that the contract has been terminated by NEC.
"Government is under the obligation to ensure that Nigerian citizens have access to the best attainable health services at public expenses.
"The communities in which the health centre projects are sited are anxiously looking forward to their completion to enable them access basic health care needs," the plaintiffs said.
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