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Justice Binta Fatima Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has been assigned to preside over the case filed by Mr Yushau A. Shuaib, challenging his withdrawal from the Senior Executive Course (SEC) 47 at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, allocated the case—registered as FHC/ABJ/CS/1329/2025—and fixed the hearing for December 8, 2025, to consider the plaintiff’s claims.
Represented by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Yunus Abdulsalam, the PRNigeria publisher is asking the court to nullify his withdrawal from SEC 47 and reinstate him with full rights, benefits, and privileges.
Mr Shuaib is also seeking ₦1 billion in damages for emotional and reputational harm, along with ₦100 million in litigation costs, alleging that NIPSS ignored a pre-action notice sent to its Director-General, Professor Ayo Omotayo.
In a 40-paragraph affidavit, the media executive, nominated for the course by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), detailed incidents he described as harassment, cyberbullying, and arbitrary disciplinary actions.
He recounted being queried over a PRNigeria report titled “NIPSS Goes Digital…”, which he said he neither wrote nor edited, as well as another opinion piece on the nation’s “Blue Economy” that did not refer to the institute.
The plaintiff argued that the queries had no basis in the NIPSS Code of Conduct and that his withdrawal letter, dated June 2, 2025, was never personally served on him but instead sent to the NIPR.
In his originating summons, Mr Shuaib raised eight issues for determination, insisting that NIPSS’s actions were non licet (unlawful) and discriminatory.
He contended that accessing his email without consent violated his constitutional right to privacy under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution.
He further argued that punishing him for professional opinions published independently of NIPSS breached his freedom of expression as guaranteed by Section 39(1) of the Constitution.
Mr Shuaib maintained that his suspension and withdrawal from the course, allegedly over “externalisation of the subject,” denied him a fair hearing, contrary to Section 36(1) of the Constitution.
Having fully paid the ₦18.3 million course fee, he said being excluded from the international study tour amounted to discrimination and breach of contract.
He also alleged that NIPSS’s directive preventing other participants from interacting with him and his removal from official communication platforms constituted harassment, cyberbullying, and enforced isolation.
The plaintiff is seeking declarations that NIPSS lacked authority to discipline him for content published by an independent media platform and that his withdrawal from the Senior Executive Course 47 was entirely unlawful.
