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Court stops Defence, FCT ministers from trespassing on Abuja land

By Ajuluchukwu Brown, Abuja
11 April 2023   |   3:55 am
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has stopped the Nigerian Army and Ministry of Defence, among others, from trespassing on and forcibly taking over plots of land located at highbrow Maitama Extension, popularly known as Maitama Aliero.

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has stopped the Nigerian Army and Ministry of Defence, among others, from trespassing on and forcibly taking over plots of land located at highbrow Maitama Extension, popularly known as Maitama Aliero.
 
In a suit marked FCT/HC/CV/318/2022, Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court had restrained the defendants pending the determination of a subsisting case before it.
 


Joined as defendants are President Muhammadu Buhari; Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Ministry of Defence; Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi; FCT Minister, Musa Muhammad and the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCDA).
 
The landowners under the auspices of the Trustees of the Association of Plot Owners, Maitama Extension, Maitama Aliero and 11 others, approached the court on December 16, 2022, asking the court to order the defendants and their agents from “committing further acts of trespass, forcibly developing, acquiring, taking over, meddling in or with, transferring, disposing off, speculating in respect of the properties of the claimants/applicants lying, being, situate at and known as and within Cadastral Zone A05, Maitama a.k.a Maitama Aliero.”

The plaintiffs accused the Nigerian Army of violently demolishing structures and possessing the plots of land in the area without valid reason.
 
On March 27, 2023, the court granted the restraining order after hearing the defendants’ affidavit in support of the motion paper attached with 13 exhibits, sworn by Dr. Angela Ekure, and written arguments by the counsel to the applicants, Williams Ataguba.
 
The court adjourned the case till June 20, 2023 for hearing.
 
Speaking after the judgment, one of the defendants Dr. Angela Ekure, urged the landowners to remain calm, saying the court would deliver verdict in their favour.

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