A team of police officers from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) command have accompanied bailiffs of the High Court of the FCT to execute a judgment of the court, which voided the allocation an expanse of land in App, Abuja to ENL Consortium Limited.
ENL Consortium is said to be owned by Osun State former Deputy Governor, Clement Adesuyi Haastrop.
The 20 police officers were said to have been directed by the FCT Commissioner of Police, Babaji Sunday to reinstate members of the Incorporated Trustees of Apo XK Extension Residents Association to the 400 plots of land that constitute the Apo XK Lay-out.
The Apo (XK) Extension Annex Layout was designed by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and certificates of occupancy (C of O) issued to would be residents in 1995.
In April 2009, the then Minister of Federal Capital Territory Muhammad Adamu Aliero and FCDA began to demolish the buildings which were at various stages of development, without giving reason or paying compensation to the victims.
The victims later formed the Incorporated Trustees of Apo XK Extension Residents Association, with which they sue at the High Court of the FCT.
Defendants in the suit were the FCT Minister, FCDA, Abuja Municipal Council, Abuja Metropolitant Management and Development Control.
On July 31, 2009, Justice Olasumbo Goodluck of the High Court of the FCT issued an ordered restraining the defendants from trespassing, encroaching on or interfering with plots XK Apo Extension Layout Annex, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The claimants stated, in court documents that, on October 5, 2009, the then FCT Minister authorised the FCDA to allocate the over 400 plots covering 78 hectares constituting the XK Apo Extension Layout Annex to the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).
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The FHA was said to have transferred the over 400 plots to one ENL Consortium Limited, in disobedience of the order restraining defendants from tampering with the land.
Despite the pendency of the suit, ENL Consortium was said to have gone ahead to develop the plots of land.
In a judgment on May 27, 2011, Justice Goodluck dismissed the suit and held that each of the allottees claiming occupation and allocation must establish his/her right on the plots.
Dissatisfied, the Incorporated Trustees of Apo XK Extension Residents Association filed a appeal marked: CA/A/462/2011, with the FCT Minister, FCDA, FHA, ENL Consortium Limited and Dr Tumala Muhammed Musa as respondents.
In a unanimous judgment on May 18, 2017, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja set aside decisions of the FCT High Court.
In a judgment, Justices Mohammed Mustapha, Emmanuel Akomaye Agim andTani Yusuf Hassan declared the re-allocation of the over 400 plots of land to ENL Consortium Limited and Federal Housing Authority as illegal, null and void.
The appellate court, among others, ordered the FCT Minister, FCDA and ENL Consortium Limited to immediately halt the acts of trespass and to remove machinery or personnel from the plots of land situated within XK Layout, Apo District, which belongs to the appellants.
Although FCDA and ENL filed appeal marked: SC.613/2018 and SC.9/2018 at the Supreme Court, both appeals were struck out on June 6 and 29, 2018 , subsequent upon which original allottees applied to the Court of Appeal for the enforcement of its judgment.
Armed with the Court of Appeal enrolment order and writ of possession, the original allottees applied to FCT Police Command for the enforcement of the Court of Appeal judgement of May 18, 2017, and the enforcement was carried out on September 29, 2022.