A real estate firm has approached a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for leave to enforce the final judgment of an arbitration against one Ashiekaa Teryila.
The applicants, Fervent Brothers Limited and Mr Lewis Innih, are asking the FCT High Court to adopt the conclusion of the arbitration as its own judgment in resolving the dispute between the claimants and the respondent.
This, the applicants said, is in line with a Supreme Court verdict. Quoting the case of Okey Jim Nwagbara v. Jadcom Limited (2021), the applicants averred that the apex court held that “An arbitral award is a final and conclusive judgment on all matters referred to arbitration and the courts are enjoined to uphold and enforce arbitral awards, having regard to the fact that arbitration is a mode of dispute resolution voluntarily agreed upon by the parties.”
The motion, marked M/867/2025 and obtained by The Guardian yesterday, seeks to enable the claimants to recover vacant possession of a property, accruing profits from the defendant/respondent, as well as damages for breach of contract.
The property, located at No. 12 Bujumbura Street, Wuse 2, Abuja, was leased to the defendant/respondent for a period of two years (May 1, 2019 – April 30, 2021) at a yearly rent of N13 million.
The claimants/applicants, Fervent Brothers Limited and Mr Lewis Innih, had dragged the defendant/respondent, Mr Ashiekaa Daniel Teryila, to court over an alleged failure to renew payment for the said apartment and a refusal to vacate it upon the expiration of the two-year lease.
However, upon discovering an arbitration clause in the lease agreement, the FCT High Court subsequently ordered the parties to explore arbitration to resolve the matter.
In a 15-paragraph affidavit deposed in support of the application for leave to enforce the final arbitration award, the claimants submitted that, in compliance with the FCT High Court’s order, the parties navigated arbitration at the Abuja Multi-Door Courthouse after jointly appointing a sole arbitrator, Miriam S. Kombo-Ezeh.
The second claimant/applicant, Lewis Innih, who deposed to the affidavit, stated that on January 15, 2025, the final award was made and published by the arbitrator in favour of the claimants.
“In the said final award, the respondent was found liable to the claimants and ordered to pay all outstanding bills on the property, vacate and surrender vacant possession of the demised property to the claimants within a month from the date of publication of the award, inter alia,” the applicants said.
The claimants argued that the order of the court is necessary for the recognition and enforcement of the final award rendered by the arbitrator on January 15, 2025, thereby bringing an end to the protracted matter.
The arbitration clause (Clause 27), which guided the lease agreement, stipulates that “Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to the present lease, or the breach, termination, or invalidity thereof, shall, unless it is settled amicably by negotiation or an agreed mode of settlement, be settled by arbitration at the request of either party. Such arbitration shall be governed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.”
The deponent further disclosed that the parties had agreed that the arbitrator would be approved by the Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Nigeria Branch, and that the parties would be bound by any arbitration award rendered under this clause as the final adjudication of the dispute, controversy, or claim.
They claimed that the problem started upon the expiration of the lease on April 30, 2021, when the respondent failed to vacate the property and did not renew it, “whereupon he became a tenant-at-will entitled to seven days’ notice to quit and a subsequent seven days’ notice of the owner’s intention to apply to court to recover possession. The said notices were served on the respondent, but he continues to hold over and detain the said property from the 1st claimant for over three years now and still counting. He also breached other clauses in the lease agreement.”
They, therefore, sought an order of the court, “recognising as binding the final award dated January 15, 2025, made by Miriam S. Kombo-Ezeh Esq of the Abuja Multi-Door Courthouse, Gudu, Abuja, the sole arbitrator in the arbitral proceedings between Fervent Brothers Limited & Mr Lewis Innih and Mr Ashiekaa Daniel Teryila.
“An order of court granting leave for the enforcement of the said final award dated January 15, 2025, made by Miriam S. Kombo-Ezeh of the Abuja Multi-Door Courthouse, Gudu, Abuja, the sole arbitrator in the arbitral proceedings between Fervent Brothers Limited & Another v. Mr Ashiekaa Daniel Teryila, in the same manner as a judgment of this Honourable Court.”
