Nagogo, Gov Yero, CP, others in court over land dispute

The land in question is situated along Kaduna – Zaria express way by Western bye-pass, Ungwan Dakande in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna state while Mohammed Umar Karage, Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, The Ministry of Land, Survey and country planning as well as the Commissioner of Police are the first, second, third and fourth […]

The land in question is situated along Kaduna – Zaria express way by Western bye-pass, Ungwan Dakande in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna state while Mohammed Umar Karage, Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, The Ministry of Land, Survey and country planning as well as the Commissioner of Police are the first, second, third and fourth defendants respectively.
Daily Trust gathered that a company, Sintax Nigeria Ltd bought 4.21hectares of land from Dr. Umar Dikko which was later sold to the plaintiff. The said land shares boundary with another 3.91 hectares of land purchased by the 1st defendant from same Dr. Dikko.
While the 1st defendant alleged that the plaintiff encroached into his own 3.91 hectares of land, the plaintiff filed a suit No. KDH/KAD/690/2014 praying the court to restrain the defendants, their agents, servants, privies or anyone acting in their names or on their behalf from taking further step to revoke or cancel C of O No. KD 27810 or act on the recommendations of the 4th defendants on the revocation of the C of O.
The judge of High Court of Justice No 14, Mohammed Kabir Dabo who was presiding over the case, last week Thursday announced that he has been transferred to Zaria Jurisdiction; thereby adjourning hearing of the case until another judge resumes work in the court.
Martins Danjuma, counsel to the Commissioner of Police said that since the judge presiding over the case has been transferred, another judge will be coming to either to commence denovo or continue from where the former judge stopped. “Until then, we expect that nobody should categorically make a statement as to the outcome of the case because anything said on the contrary will amount to pre-empting the judge. At the end of the case, each person will go home with the decision of the court.
On whether delay of the case may affect the right of the individual, the counsel to the first defendant, Mohammed Shehu said, “I don’t believe that there is a delay in this matter, the case started this year, so whatever we are doing now is to lay a good foundation for the case. This is a civil case and an individual has the right to sue the Governor individually or together with other people.”
In a copy of the 4th defendant’s counter affidavit to plaintiff’s motion on notice dated August 12, 2014 made available to our reporter; it was stated that on 30/5/2014, a reported case of criminal trespass written by Sadau Garba & Co. Chambers on the instruction of the nominal complainant, Mohammed Umar Karage (1st Defendant) addressed to the 4th defendant (Commissioner of Police) was referred to the Police Department of Criminal investigation for investigation.
It further revealed that from the complaint of the 1st defendant, one Dr. Umar Dikko owned a large area of land numbering about 33 hectares along Zaria – Kaduna access road near Dankande. “That it was from Dr. Umar Dikko that Sintax Nigeria Limited bought 4.21 hectares of land which shares boundary with another 3.91 hectares of land purchased by the 1st defendant from same Dr. Umar Dikko in 2009,” he said.
“That the 1st defendant alleged that he was shocked when he discovered that the plaintiff who purportedly  bought the 4.21 hectares from Sintax Nigeria Limited had encroached into the entire 3.91 hectares he bought from Dr. Dikko. In the course of investigation, Sintax Nigeria Ltd. Admitted having originally acquired only 4.21hectares of land from Dr. Dikko and part of which was affected by the proposed round-about and over-head bridge construction contract that was awarded by the federal government of Nigeria.”