The stage is set for a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt to deliver its judgment in the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act suit filed by Mr Mark Lenu against University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director.
Mark, a journalist with Wish 99.5 FM had, by a letter dated April 5, 2019, written to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital requesting, under the FOI Act, for details of the money received by the Hospital from the federal government for salaries and allowances of staff of the institution for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years.
The suit also joined as a defendant the Attorney General of the Federation and was filed on April 30, 2019 over the hospital failed to grant his request for information made pursuant to the Freedom of information Act 2011 via a letter dated April 5, 2019.
At the hearing of the matter, the Hospital and its Chief Medical Director filed an application for extension of time to transmit the request to another institution, five months after the suit had commenced. However, the counsel to the journalist, Mr K.I.C Chukwuezie, argued that the counsel to the Hospital and the Chief Medical Director was devising means to stall the case after several adjournments. The court ruled in favour of the Mark, dismissing the application because it lacked merit and awarded the cost of N20, 000 to him.
Before Honourable Justice K. J. Omotosho, both parties further argued the substantive case and thereafter adopted the processes filed. The court will be deciding on the case as the journalist in this suit is praying for the following reliefs:
a. A Declaration that he is entitled as of right to receive the information applied from the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director has made a written application which they received the on April 5, 2019.
b. A Declaration that the failure and/or refusal of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director to make available to him the information he applied for in his letter to them is wrongful, unlawful and amounts to a gross violation of his right of access to Information established and guaranteed by Sections 1(1), and 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
c. A declaration that the failure and/or refusal by the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director to make available to him the information applied for in his letter to them amounts to wrongful denial of access to information under Section 7(5) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
d. A Declaration that the failure and/or refusal of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director to give written notice to him stating the reason for the denial of the information sought and requested is wrong, unlawful and constitutes a gross violation of Section 4 (b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
e. An Order of the Court on the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director to make available to him a hard copy of the information requested within seven days of the judgment of the Court.
f. An Order of the Court on the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director to make available to him the information he applied for through his email: marklenu15@gmail.com within seven days of the judgment of the Court.
g. An Order directing the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate criminal proceedings against the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and its Chief Medical Director for the offence of wrongful denial of access to information under Section 7(5) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
h. The Sum of N1,000.000.00 (One Million Naira) only, as exemplary and aggravated damages for the unlawful violation of his right of access to information established and guaranteed by Sections 1(1) and 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and for wrongful denial of access to information under Section 7 (4) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
i. And for such orders or further orders as the Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance
This prosecution of the suit has been supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in collaboration with Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
