The Supreme Court will on Friday June 23, rule on whether a date error on a search report issued by the Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) constitutes fresh evidence in a property suit.
Former Ambassador to South Africa, Alhaji Shehu Malami and businessman Sir Emeka Offor are the appellants; a businessman, Imokhuede Ohikhuare, is first respondent in the suit.
They are squabbling over Plot 1809 Asokoro, Abuja, containing a two-wing duplex built by Ohikhuare, which Malami and Offor took possession of four years ago following an Abuja High Court judgment.
However, in a unanimous decision delivered on May 28, 2015, the Court of Appeal, Abuja restored the ownership of the property to Ohikhuare. Malami and Offor appealed to the Supreme Court.
At the last hearing, counsel to Malami and Offor, Joe Agi (SAN), claimed that the report constituted fresh evidence.
When the court asked Agi if he did not spot the typographical error during hearings at the High Court and the Court of Appeal, Agi explained that he did not represent Malami and Offor at the lower courts.
However, in a unanimous decision delivered on May 28, 2015, the Court of Appeal, Abuja restored the ownership of the property to Mr. Ohikhuare, a verdict which is now on appeal at the Supreme Court. The Appeal Court had ruled that the Abuja High Court judgment was legally deficient because Malami “no longer had the power to initiate proceedings at the lower court for himself because it is settled that an Irrevocable Power of Attorney given for valuable consideration robs the donor of power to exercise any of the powers conferred on the donee.”
Since Malami had divested his interest in the land, the Appeal Court reasoned, he cannot institute any legal case on it, as the Supreme Court had ruled in the precedent case of Edebiri vs Omotayo, which the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen delivered on February 11, 2014 in suit Number SC./440/2012 involving Mrs. Mojisola Edebiri (Appellant) and Prince Omotayo Daniel & ANOR (Respondents).