The founder of PRNigeria, Yushau Shuaib, has dragged the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, to court, challenging his withdrawal from the institute’s Senior Executive Course (SEC) 47.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1329/2025, filed at the Federal High Court, Mr Shuaib is demanding ₦1 billion in general, special, and aggravated damages against NIPSS over alleged emotional trauma and reputational damage.

The plaintiff is also seeking an additional ₦100 million as litigation costs, having issued a pre-action notice on June 16 to the institute’s Director-General, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, which he alleged was ignored by the management.

The case, filed on his behalf by Yunus Abdulsalam, SAN, seeks a court order setting aside his withdrawal from SEC 47 and reinstating him with full rights, benefits, and privileges.

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

In his originating summons, the plaintiff raised eight issues for determination.

He argued that the publication of a news article by PRNigeria, an independent media organisation, could not lawfully be attributed to him as misconduct when he neither authored nor endorsed it.

He also questioned whether NIPSS’s alleged access and use of his private email without consent violated his constitutional right to privacy under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution.

The plaintiff further contended that the disciplinary action against him for professional opinions expressed in a published article breached his right to freedom of expression guaranteed by Section 39(1).

He argued that barring participants from interacting with him and removing him from official platforms amounted to harassment, cyberbullying, and forced isolation.

He said that denying him participation in the international study tour, despite his full payment of ₦18.3 million course fees, constituted discrimination and breach of contract.

He also faulted his suspension and withdrawal from the course based on alleged externalisation of the subject without a fair hearing and described it as a violation of his constitutional right.

He prayed the court to declare that the actions of NIPSS were unlawful, unjustifiable, discriminatory, and unsupported by any regulation guiding the institute.

In a 40-paragraph affidavit, Mr Shuaib said that he was nominated by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations to represent it at the course, a nomination approved by the President of Nigeria.

He attached his admission letter, proof of payment of ₦18.3 million, and evidence of compliance with NIPSS requirements, including handing over responsibilities at his company, Image Merchants Promotion Limited, publishers of PRNigeria.

He alleged that despite complying with institutional rules, he was subjected to harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary disciplinary actions.

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

He said that he neither authored nor edited the article, which other media outlets had widely reported.

He further alleged that on April 25, NIPSS again queried him about an internal email concerning an editorial, “Understanding the ‘Blue’ in the Blue Economy.”

He said the article was a professional reflection containing no sensitive information, yet NIPSS intercepted it before it could be published.

Mr Shuaib claimed that the queries were unfounded and not supported by the NIPSS Code of Conduct.

He also alleged that his withdrawal letter dated June 2 was curiously addressed only to NIPR without being officially served on him.

He asked the court to reinstate him into SEC 47 with full privileges and to declare that NIPSS had no authority to penalise him for content published by an independent platform.

He also prayed the court to hold that accessing his private emails violated his constitutional rights, and to declare his withdrawal unlawful, unjustifiable, and discriminatory.

No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.

(NAN)