The forceful takeover of the sprawling structure on Plot 1405, Cadastral Zone 05, Maitama, Abuja, known as Marjanatu House by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), is an abuse of power, a lawyer, Opeyemi Ajekigbe has said.
Ajekigbe, who is the lawyer to D, B. Mangal Nigeria Limited, said six officials of the NBTE, accompanied by about 20 thugs on November 11, at about 4:00 p.m. were said to have invaded the property, occupied by Standard Chartered Bank, First Bank among other businesses and chased out all tenant-occupants and locked the gates to the premises.
According to Ajekigbe, the NBTE had first attempted to claim the property in 2006 through a court case instituted on its behalf by Petroleum Financial Corporate Limited.
He said while the case, marked FCT/HC/CV/238/2006 was pending, the court, in 2007, issued an interlocutory order for parties to maintain status quo pending the determination of the suit in which NBTE claimed it owned the plot of land being occupied by the property.
In the final judgment on February 2, 2012, Justice Ugochukwu Ogakwu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) vacated the interlocutory order and proceeded to determine the case against the plaintiff and held that it failed to establish its claim to the land.
Justice Ogakwu further held that the plot of land belonged to the defendant D. B. Mangal Nigeria Limited.
The lawyer said despite the judgment which it did not appeal, the NBTE instigated the now-defunct Special Presidential Panel on Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) led by Okoi Obono Obla to take over the same property in 2019 but failed.
Ajekigbe said one of the NBTE officials Bashir Abubakar, who allegedly led the invasion, claimed that the Minister of Education authorised the takeover of the building.
He condemned the decision by the NBTE authorities to resort to self-help, noting that as an educational institution, the body “ought to know better the import of the phrase, due process and the attendant effect of lack of it.”
The Director of Press and Information, Federal Ministry of Education, Bem Goong dismissed the claim that the Education Minister authorised the takeover of the property.
Goong wondered how Adamu, who has not been in the country for some time, could authorise such a takeover.
“The Minister you are talking about has been in Germany for weeks and could not have given such order. Whose house is it? Does the Minister just give orders for the takeover of houses?” Goong queried.
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