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Lagos landlords petition attorney general over Magodo land dispute

By Bertram Nwannekanma
07 November 2016   |   2:28 am
Last year, the judgment creditors have asked the Supreme Court of Nigeria to wade in and make a judicial pronouncement that would give effect to the execution and possession of their landed property.
Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami

Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami

Poised to ensure that the Lagos State Government and the Chief Judge complied with the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria ordering the release of 549 plots of landed property in Shangisha-Magodo Town Scheme II, Lagos State, the judgment creditors have petitioned Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, to allow them repossess their land.

The Landlords’ Association of Shangisha-Magodo, Ikosi-Ketu Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), represented by Chief Adebayo Adeyiga and six others against 549 persons unknown in a letter dated September 30, 2016, urged the Attorney General not to allow the contemptuous judgment debtors to continuously rape the rule of law.

According to them, they may be left with no other option than to resort to anarchy and violence if their humble application is not honoured because of their belief that the order granted by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case cannot go in vain in the life and times of highly responsible apostles of law like the attorney general.

Last year, the judgment creditors have asked the Supreme Court of Nigeria to wade in and make a judicial pronouncement that would give effect to the execution and possession of their landed property.

But the apex at its sitting on March 1, 2016, expressed displeasure over the attitude of the Lagos state government and its agencies on the matter.

Specifically, the apex court while deliberating on an originating summons brought pursuant to Order 113 Rules 1 and 3 of the Rule of the Supreme Court in England and under the Supreme Court Practice, warned the Lagos State Attorney General, Mr. Adeniji Kassim on the danger it portends for refusing to carry out the order of the Supreme Court.

In the summons, the Landlords had among others asked for an order of the court for the recovery of possession of the 549 plots of land in the Shangisha Village Scheme II in Ikosi-Ketu LCDA of Kosofo Local Government of Lagos State against unknown 549 persons/occupiers of the disputed land.

But worried by the continued refusal of the state chief judge, Justice Funmilayo Atilade to sign the Writ of possession on her table since November 2015, despite Supreme Court’s warnings, the Landlords have urged the Attorney General to use his good office to direct the said judgment debtors and their agents to comply with the said judgment of Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered on February 10, 2012.

The latest move is coming four years after the landlords got a favourable judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which endorsed lower courts’ decision that Lagos government should allocate 549 plots of land to them within the Magodo Scheme II in Ketu.

While noting that disobeying the orders of courts are even more grievous and the mother of corruption, the landlords asked whether the Lagos Chief judge is answerable to the chief Justice of Nigeria and if so whether the chief judge can disobey and ignore the instruction from the Chief Justice of Nigeria with levity.

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