By WANDOO SOMBO

The Federal High Court in Abuja, has fixed March 5 for continuation of hearing in the suit filed by founder of PRNigeria, Yushau Shuaib against the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau.

When the matter was called on Tuesday, counsel to Shuaib, Mr F. Abdulraheem told the court that the matter was for mention and that he had served the originating processes on the defendant.

For his part, counsel to NIPSS, Mr P.A Akuboh said that he had filed a notice of preliminary objection to the suit and also filed a counter affidavit.

Akuboh told the court that he had not been served with any other process in the matter.

The lawyer also told the court that after the plaintiff’s withdrawal from the programme, he was still holding on to the keys of his accommodation.

He said to this end, his client was seeking the intervention of the court to retrieve the key because accommodation was very scarce especially as there was a new set of admissions.

Meanwhile, counsel to the plaintiff told the court that he had mobilised the baillif and given him the correct address to serve the processes so he was surprised to hear that the bailiff took the process to a different location.

He prayed the court to allow him serve the defendant in court.

The presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako permitted him to serve his processes on the defendant in court since they did not raise any objections.

Justice Nyako then adjourned the matter until March 5 for continuation of hearing.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that Shuaib instituted the suit challenging what he described as his unlawful withdrawal from the Senior Executive Course (SEC) 47 after his admission had been approved by President Bola Tinubu and all required payments and conditions fulfilled.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1329/2025, the plaintiff is seeking ?1 billion in general, and aggravated damages for emotional trauma and reputational harm allegedly caused by NIPSS.

He is also demanding ?100 million as litigation costs, following a pre-action notice he issued on June 16, to the Director-General of NIPSS, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, which he said was ignored.

The suit filed by Mr Yunus Abdulsalam, SAN, seeks an order setting aside his withdrawal from SEC 47 and reinstating him with full rights, benefits, and privileges.

Shuaib is also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining NIPSS, its agents, or officials from further harassment, intimidation, or cyberbullying.

In his originating summons, he raised eight issues for determination.

He argued that a PRNigeria news article could not lawfully be attributed to him as misconduct since he neither authored nor endorsed it.

He also questioned the legality of NIPSS allegedly accessing and using his private email without consent.

This, he said violated his constitutional right to privacy under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution.

He also said that barring other course participants from interacting with him and removing him from official platforms amounted to harassment, cyberbullying, and isolation.

He claimed that denying him participation in the international study tour, despite paying ?18.3 million in course fees, constituted discrimination and breach of contract.

He argued that his suspension and withdrawal over alleged “externalisation of the subject” without fair hearing violated Section 36(1) of the Constitution.

In a 40-paragraph affidavit, Shuaib stated that he was nominated by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) to represent it on the course, a nomination approved by the President.

He alleged that In spite of meeting all requirements, he was subjected to harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary disciplinary actions.

He said he received a query on March 24 over a PRNigeria article titled “NIPSS Goes Digital; Launches Paperless Platform after Submitting Landmark Report to President Tinubu.”

He insisted that he neither authored nor edited the story, which had been widely reported by other media organisations.

The plaintiff Is asking the court to reinstate him into SEC 47 with full privileges and to declare that NIPSS lacks authority to penalise him for content published by an independent platform. (NAN)