MUSDAPHER JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal Port Harcourt Division appeal No. CA/PH/159/2000 delivered on 28 May 2000 in which thecourt dismissed the appeal of the appellant herein against the ruling on a preliminary objection against the appellant’s suit on the grounds of jurisdiction. The trial courtupheld the preliminary objection. The matter started this way: in the Federal High Court in the Port Harcourt Division and in suit No. FHC/PH/936/96 , the appellant herein, as the plaintiff challenged his compulsory retirement from the services of Bayelsa State Government whereby in his writ he claimed as follows: “1. A declaration of this honourable court that the purported
“compulsory retirement” of the plaintiff from the civil service of Bayelsa State in “public interest” without any prior query , indictment or known offence is null and void and of no effect whatsoever in that it contravenes the provisions of the 1979 Co…