Alma Beach Estate: Court restrains NICON trustees from interference

A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has granted an
order of interim injunction restraining NICON Trustees Limited and
Abah Onah from interfering with the land on Alma Beach Estate
located at Lekki Peninsula pending the determination of the motion
on notice for interlocutory injunction.

Bolanle Olawale Babalakin (SAN), Abiodun Layonu, Temitayo
Akinbami, Olusegun Ahmadu suing on behalf of Alma Beach Estates
Limited had approached the court to seek for an order restraining
the defendants/respondents, NICON Trustees Limited and Abah Onah
from interfering with people’s land in the estate.

The plaintiffs/applicants had equally joined the Inspector
General of Police (IGP) as a defendant in the suit, leading to the
court also granting an interim injunction restraining the Nigeria
Police Force from taking possession or interfering with the land
pending the determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory
injunction.

However, in spite of the above court orders, Chief N.C Okwarauba
is alleging that the defendants, NICON Trustees Limited and Abah
Onah, with the assistance of policemen have forcefully taken over
lands belonging to allottees in the estate and started
building.

In an advertorial published in the ThisDay Newspaper of October
31, 2019, titled, “Illegality: Under police protection, NICON
Trustees grabs, sells and unlawfully builds on people’s land at
Alma Beach Estate, Ikate, Lagos,” Okwarauba alleged that on October
22, NICON and its thugs forcefully took over land of an allottee
and commenced building work on it in the presence of armed
policemen.

He also alleged that Abah Onah, Bode Thomas and Ejeta Otunoniyo
have been advertising and selling innocent people’s lands, adding
that Onah was allegedly appointed by NICON as receiver of the
estate that is a subject of litigation.

On the activities of Onah, Chief Okwarauba said: “We refer to a
rejoinder published on page 33 of the Vanguard Newspaper on Monday,
October 28, 2019, in which one Abah Onah tried hard to concoct and
deliberately misrepresent facts with intent to deceive the public
concerning the illegality being perpetrated by NICON and its agents
at Alma Beach Estate.

“On October 22, 2019, allottees of Alma Beach Estate met with
the Commissioner of Police (CP), Lagos State and Deputy
Commissioner, Operations for a pre-arranged meeting in which
NICON’s representatives also attended.

“The issue for discussion is the invasion of lands/property at
Alma Beach Estate by armed police officers at the behest of
NICON.

“In summary, the CP instructed the DC Operations to ensure that
armed policemen ceased to enter into allottee’s land; that the
deployment of policemen to the estate was on the orders of
superiors in Abuja, namely the Office of the CP, Legal; Office of
the PSO to the IGP.

and on the instigation of the Office of the FCIID headed by DIG
Mike Ogbizi, based on an instruction dated September 26, 2019.”

He lamented that contrary to the CP’s order and the subsisting
restraining court orders, “armed policemen remain on allottee’s
lands/property having displaced lawful owners and their workers,
some of whom were violently assaulted by NICON’s thugs led by
Oluwaseun Kayode.”

Wondering why the police would get involved in a matter that is
subject of litigation, he asked: “Why should the Nigeria police
allow itself to be used by NICON to perpetrate these crimes? Why
are senior police officers in Abuja, including the head of the
FCIID interested in lands at Alma Beach Estate? Why should Area
J/Ajah Commander always send officers to harass workers and
allottees?”

Chief Okwarauba argued that under the Lagos State laws, NICON’s
action amounts to land grabbing, which runs contrary to the
law.

He, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently
prevail on the IGP to issue immediate instruction to withdraw
policemen from the estate.

He also wants the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to
urgently instruct the state Attorney General to prosecute NICON and
its agents under the land grabbing laws of the state.

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