Drama as landlord takes grouse with tenant to court

The frosty relationship between a landlord, Alhaji Rasheed Soaga, and his tenant, Alhaji Mutiu Ogunmefun, played out before the Abeokuta Customary Grade II Court, Ake, yesterday, as the two men refused to greet each other but rather engaged in a shouting match in court.  The development almost marred the proceedings of the tenancy case instituted […]

The frosty relationship between a landlord, Alhaji Rasheed Soaga, and his tenant, Alhaji Mutiu Ogunmefun, played out before the Abeokuta Customary Grade II Court, Ake, yesterday, as the two men refused to greet each other but rather engaged in a shouting match in court. 

The development almost marred the proceedings of the tenancy case instituted by the  aged Soaga against his tenant, as the court had to make reversals in the notes it had earlier recorded.

Soaga is seeking the eviction of Ogunmefun from his three-bedroom apartment located at No. 7, Adebesin Street, Adatan, Abeokuta. 

When the case was yesterday called before the Chief Olalekan Akande-led court, Soaga, who was sitting between Ogunmefun and another person stood up and walked into the dock.

However, Ogunmefun, apparently oblivious of the court process, remained seated instead of following his landlord into the other dock. When Ogunmefun’s name was called and he didn’t respond, Soaga joined to echo that he was absent.

Worried by the gestures around him, Ogunmefun raised a hand to draw attention to his presence, saying, “I am here. I am here.” 

The court president, who had been engrossed in his jottings, paused to ask, “Who are you?” Ogunmefun replied, “I am the tenant. I don’t know what is happening.”

Chief Akande turned to Soaga and asked him, “But you said he was absent?”, to which the landlord promptly replied, “Yes, because I did not see him as he did not greet me when he came in.”

Akande lampooned Soaga for the confusion he had created, saying, “Even if he did not want to answer, it is your duty to identify him since he is here in court. You do not have to transfer your grouse with him to this court. Now, this confusion will make us to cancel the report that I have started.”

Ogunmefun denied being served any quit notice in the first place, and Soaga could, indeed, not produce any before the court. 

The court ruled that since there was no evidence of any quit notice served on the defendant, the landlord should go back home and serve his tenant the notice before his case could be heard.

Chief Akande adjourned the case to April 26, 2018. 

Soaga had accused Ogunmefun of not paying his N5000 monthly rent since August 2017, and that he refused to vacate the apartment after two alleged quit notices.

Shortly after the court’s pronouncement, the two men engaged each other in a shouting match, which warranted the intervention of the court orderly to drive them out of the court premises.