An Abuja-based lawyer, Alexander Oketa, has dragged the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over a land ownership tussle between Jona Brothers Construction Limited and Chief Michael Adeojo, Chairman of Elizade Motors.
Acting on behalf of his clients, Jona Brothers, the suit lists the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and some EFCC officials as respondents.
He is asking the court to order the respondents to pay the plaintiffs the sum of ₦500 million as general damages.
Oketa had petitioned the EFCC Chairman last week, urging him to call his personnel, who were allegedly involved in land grabbing in Abuja, to order.
The piece of land, situated at Plot 680-689, Cadastral Zone, B06 Mabushi, Abuja, has been a subject of dispute, with several court judgments and a police investigation report confirming Jona Brothers as the authentic owners. However, the EFCC, in a twist, intervened and insisted the land belonged to Chief Adeojo.
Subsequently, EFCC operatives stormed the premises last Thursday, sealing off the property and threatening to arrest anyone who approached it, relying on an ex parte order of interim forfeiture.
In a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed at the High Court of the FCT on behalf of Jona Brothers Construction Limited, Bullion Properties Limited, Oyenbueke Uche Vincent, and John Oyih, Barrister Oketa is seeking an order directing the EFCC to immediately unseal the property and allow his clients unrestrained access.
The suit also seeks an order declaring the EFCC’s invasion, threats to arrest, and attempts to detain the landowners as “ultra vires, arbitrary, prejudicial, without precedent, unprocedural, unconstitutional, a subversion of the rule of law and due administration of justice, a subversion of the independence, authority, and integrity of the judiciary, and a violation of the applicants’ fundamental rights to personal liberty, fair hearing, and freedom to own movable and immovable property, as guaranteed under Sections 35, 36, 43, and 44 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
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The suit, which also names the IGP, the AGF, and some EFCC officials as respondents, demands ₦500 million as general damages.
The lawyer argued that the respondents took the law into their own hands and recklessly carried out these illegal acts without the approval of the enforcement unit of the Federal High Court, Abuja, where they covertly obtained the ex parte order.
Barrister Oketa further contended that the respondents violated the sanctity of the courts and the applicants’ rights to liberty, fair hearing, and ownership of property, as enshrined in Sections 35, 43, and 44 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as Articles 6 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He is also seeking an order directing the IGP to provide the applicants with necessary protection and security to ensure their peaceful possession of the property.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
