Court dismisses Ortom’s case challenging probe

The State High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State on Tuesday dismissed the case brought before it by the immediate past governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, challenging the probe panel instituted by the present administration against him.

The state governor, Hyacinth Alia, had in February 2024 set up two separate panels to probe the management of the eight years finances and assets of Ortom.

Ortom thereafter challenged the setting up of the two panels in court and prayed that the finances of his eight years tenure (2015-2023) were audited and report submitted to the Benue State House of Assembly by the Auditor General was accordingly acted upon as required by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

The former governor also argued in his suit that the same issues were before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, hence, it amounted to double investigations to set up another panel to investigate the finances of the state under his watch.

Irked by the decision to probe him, Ortom dragged the Benue State Government, the Attorney General and all members of the Commission of Inquiry before the court challenging their competence to check the finances of his administration.

The former governor had last week brought an application which sought to appeal against the earlier decision of the court and the ruling was fixed for yesterday.

The presiding judge, Justice Tertsea Asue who ruled on an originating motion and an application for extension of time instituted by Ortom through his counsel, Maduabuchi Uba, SAN, was dismissed for lack of merit.

The judge submitted that the applicant’s case was status-barred and stated that the applicant also failed to seek the leave of court before filing the originating motion which seeks to bring his suit before the court

He maintained that there was nothing in the Public Officers Protection Law or the rules of court that provided for an extension of time to file an action out of time and declared that both actions did not follow the required due process of law.

According to the judge, the first respondent, (Governor Alia) signed the gazette and constituted a commission of inquiry on February 27 while the applicant (ex-governor) filed his case on May, 31 which was clearly out of time.

Asue further said that the applicant has shown that he filed his case out of time, hence, the motion for a request for extension time to file the notice on the motion.

He said the Public Officers Protection Law and Rules of the Court did not provide room for an extension of time on originating summons.