Court vacates order sealing National Hospital, Abuja

Mothers waiting for doctors at the National Hospital , Abuja

A Wuse Zone 6 Chief Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday vacated the order which sealed the National Hospital Abuja.

The National Hospital, Abuja, was sealed for alleged unpaid debt of N7.8million to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).

The Magistrate, Mrs Chinyere Nwacheonwu, adjourned the case till July 18 for report of settlement.

Defence Counsel Chris Mamman had made an oral application for settlement and vacation of the order.

“We plead with the court to give us time to resolve the issue and we shall be asking that the seal-off order dated, June 22, 2016, be vacated.

Earlier, the prosecuting counsel, Nnamdi Ugochukwu, had told the court that a summons was issued to the defendant on May 17.

He told the court that the defendant received the summons on May 26, but failed to appear in court on June 8.

“Another summons was issued on the defendant again which was received by Adejo Audu, Senior Consultant and Secretary of the defendant.

“But despite receiving the summons, the defendant refused to appear in the court.

“For the purpose of fair hearing, the court ordered that the defendant be served with hearing notice and it was received by Mr Bello Ibrahim, Admin Executive Officer of the defendant.

The prosecutor also told the court that a demand was made for the sum of N5,191,200 which represents a yearly bill, the half-year bill being N2,595,600.

He said the demand was made and received on behalf of the hospital by Ekuofu Kefas but after 21 days, the demand was not paid.

Mamman, who had earlier apologised to the court for the defendant’s absence in court on June 8, told the court that an attempt was made to pay the bill.

“An initial notice of N5,191,200 was processed by the defendant and an attempt to pay was made but the process could not be concluded.

“It was made known that all Federal Agencies and Departments are on Treasury Single Account (TSA) maintained at the CBN.