Landlords Raise Alarm Over ‘Fake’ Court Judgements

Owners of NASCO Estate in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of
Lagos State have raised the alarm over indiscriminate judgements
being paraded by land grabbers aimed at taking over their
legitimately acquired land.

They are asking the Federal Government which leased and gazetted
the land to NASCO to quickly intervene with a view to assuring them
that the land was legitimately and lawfully acquired by them.

According to them, the controversial judgements which had
neither NASCO nor the Federal Government as a party were being used
by suspected land grabbers to encroach on their land.

Lawyer to NASCO and its landlords, Mr. Iheanyi Emeh, said that
the land which was the subject matter of the judgment was different
from those being dangling by the suspected grabbers.

Emeh in a statement said, “the entire stretch of land called
NASCO Estate belongs to NASCO Estate Nigeria Limited by virtue of a
lease between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the company,
entered in 1978.”

He went on: “In 1994, one Michael Mojisola Cole, filed suit
No.ID/1134/94 between Michael Mojisola Cole vs Agbojojoye family,
the original land owners (Omonile) from whom the Federal Government
of Nigeria acquired the land and thereafter leased to NASCO after
paying compensation to the family.

“The family entered settlement with Mojisola Cole wherein they
agreed to give him 42 Acres of land as replacement for the 100
acres he bought from them at any other location other than the
Federal Government acquired land leased to NASCO.

“However, in February 2018, some land grabbers purporting to be
Attorneys to Mojisola Cole (now late) entered NASCO land purporting
that they were executing judgment in the earlier Suit
No.ID/1134/94.

“They refused to avail us of the copy of the judgment they were
executing. The police were called in to intervene. The police in
turn sought clarification from the office of the Surveyor-General
of the Federation as to the boundaries of NASCO land vis a vis
Mojisola Cole’s land.

“In its response to the police enquiry, the office of the
Surveyor-General stated emphatically that the matter is not one of
boundary dispute but a case of complete trespass into NASCO’s land
by the acclaimed Attorneys of Mojisola Cole. Nevertheless, the land
grabbers have remained on NASCO’s land because they are aided and
goaded by some top security officers.”

However, the chairman of the estate, Chief Osita Ekpunobi, said
members of the estate had lived peacefully in the estate for 20
years until February and March when the land grabbers invaded the
estate with thugs on the strength of a fictitious consent judgment
which was meant for another land.

“We plead with the Federal Government and the Inspector General
of Police to intervene urgently and save our lives and land. And
also reassure us that the provision in the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Sections 43, 44,) that the
citizens can genuinely acquire landed properties in any part of the
country is still true,” he said.

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