Court Dismisses Communities’ Suit against Superhighway Construction

A Federal High Court in Calabar yesterday gave judgment in favour of the Cross River state government against two communities that dragged the government to court over the proposed 260km superhighway, one of the signature projects of the governor, Professor Ben Ayade.

The suit with no HM/191/2016 was initiated by the people of New and Old Ekuri of Akamkpa Local Government Area seeking to stop the construction of the superhighway.
But delivering judgement yesterday, Justice Maurice Eneji of High Court 3 dismissed the suit as an abuse of court process.

The judge similarly did not grant the prayer of the applicants to stop the construction of the superhighway.

The judge further awarded a cost of a N100,000 against the claimants/applicants in favour of the state government.

The government was represented in the matter by Richard Akpanke Akwagiobe (state counsel ) while the claimants were represented by James Oyi and Ikoi.

Reacting to the judgement, Akwagiobe expressed his delight at the judgement.
He said he was happy that the matter was resolved in his favor and that he further got cost awarded in favour of the state government.

Counsel to the claimants, were not immediately available for comments.