From Blessing Ibunge, Port Harcourt
A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state on Thursday struck out a suit filed by members of Ogoni Youth Federation(OYF), against the Hydro Carbon Remediation Project (HYPREP) on technical ground.
The Ogoni indigenous group had filed the suit bothering on Freedom Information Bill.
According to the suit before Justice Emmanuel Obile, the group seeked redress on the inability of HYPREP to provide them with information on the way and manner the initial $10 million dollars mapped out by the Federal Government as take-off grants for the project was disbursed.
However, delivering his judgement, Justice Obile ruled that HYPRED cannot be sued because it was not established by an act of the National Assembly.
The Judge noted that the Plaintiffs files the suit wrongly, saying that they did not follow the right judicial process.
He also pointed out that the proper person to have been sued was the Federal Government, instead of HYPREP.
The Judge therefore, struck out the case on lack of merit.
Reacting to the court decision, shortly after the sitting, the plaintiffs Lawyer, Epsibari Pygbara, said that the court has taken decision on the case, but that the judgement would be reviewed and to know the way forward.
Also speaking, President of OYF, Legborsi Yamaabana assured that the case has not closed, insisting that they will appeal the decision of the High court.
