Landlords lose 300 homes in court judgment

Residents of Shagayya, one of the areas witnessing rapid development in Suleja town of Niger State were confronted by eviction notice on Monday, when officials of the state High Court accompanied by armed policemen stormed the area to enforce a court judgment. The ruling was on ownership of land housing over 300 homes. The land […]

Residents of Shagayya, one of the areas witnessing rapid development in Suleja town of Niger State were confronted by eviction notice on Monday, when officials of the state High Court accompanied by armed policemen stormed the area to enforce a court judgment.
The ruling was on ownership of land housing over 300 homes. The land has undeveloped plots also.
The residents, who are either house owners or tenants on the land, Daily Trust gathered, include those who relocated to the area after the demolition of houses in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the era of Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i  as minister. The sprouting of mansions in Shagayya earned it the nickname Millionaires’ Quarters.
When our reporter visited the area on Monday, residents expressed shock about the time given them to vacate the area. Official came on Monday, ordered them to vacate immediately and placed padlocks on their gates.
One of the residents who gave her name as Mrs Gloria told our reporter from inside her locked house, “They came here around 1:00pm and demanded that we should move out of our homes. I pleaded with them to allow my children take their meal as they just came back from school. But as I returned inside, they locked the gate and moved to other houses.” The woman’s sister scaled the wall not minding the barbed wire in attempt to get into the house .
A property agent, Peter Ikika said he was there on the order of his client. He said the tenants called the landlord and informed him of the development. He said they were warned that anyone who unlocked the padlock would be arrested and taken to court. A property owner, Muhammed Alpa said after he bought his land, which he said was a farmland at the time, he got the signature of the ward head on the paper which bore the land sale agreement between him and its original owner.
Daily Trust gathered that, the court verdict was passed on February 12, this year after a litigation that lasted for more than four years over who legally own the land measuring 10 hectares. The court judgment was ruled in favour of the complainant, Auwal Abubakar Pai, who instituted the action on behalf of his family through their lawyer, Barrister J.T. Ndubizu. Respondents were two families represented by Abubakar Nagogo Kawuni and Lawal Idris, respectively.
The question was whose forefather among the disputing parties, legally owned the farmland which over the years, the respondents allocated to buyers, who in turn developed it without securing statutory document.
 The ward head of the area, Yusuf Abdullahi Mainasara confirmed to our reporter a that most of the residents who acquired plots from the family members that have lost in court had only the signature of ward head and that of the district head on their paper. Only few of them  went further to have a local government grant, but not state Certificate of Occupancy (CofO), he added.
Chairman of Suleja Local Council Malam Dikko Kassim said, “The judgment was passed as far back as 2015, but action had been delayed on the judgment until now.
“However buildings had already been erected on some parts of the land. And the order includes that people occupying the land should immediately vacate.
“So in the process of enforcing the order, extreme measures were taken where some houses were locked up with residents including children inside them. 
“As a result of that as chief security officer I decided to intervene in order to guard against the breakdown of law and order. I personally talked to the Chief Registrar of the court. On the following day, those houses were reopened and the occupiers were allowed to leave, before the buildings were closed again.
“Now, there’s nothing we could do about it. The only option is for the loosers in the case to appeal if they feel they were treated unfairly. So are the victims who happened to have bought the land.”