The Nation Newspaper

Tag: quarrel

  • Widow, lawmaker quarrel over property

    A widow, Remi Ogunjobi, has accused a Lagos lawmaker, Kabir Olajide Lawal of depriving her the use of a property bought by her husband 18 years ago.

    According to her, the property, an apartment in Block 6, Rabiatu Thompson Crescent, Surulere, Lagos, was bought by her husband in 1996 from the son of the current occupant, Mrs. Aisatu Raji, a centenarian. Lawal, who represents Surulere 1 constituency, was Mrs. Raji’s lawyer.

    For nine years, her husband, she claimed, tried to possess the property until he died. Nine years after his death, Mrs. Ogunjobi is still trying to gain possession of the apartment.

    She said on three occasions, the court ruled in her favour, the last being the verdict delivered by Justice Lateefat Okunnu seven years ago.

    “When I went with my lawyer, policemen and court bailiffs to take possession of the property after the last judgment, area boys were mobilised against us. They flogged the policemen and bailiffs and we ran away from the scene,” she said.

    When the courts could not help, she said she petitioned Governor Babatunde Fashola, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and political leader in Surulere.

    She has also gone to the Lagos Television ombudsman programme, Mogbejomide, to state her case but their efforts failed. Her latest attempt was her cry on a Radio station to appeal for public help.

    “I am afraid to even go to the property because of my first experience with area boys. More so, the old woman said on LTV that it is Kabir Lawal that put her there and only he can remove her,” she said.

    Mrs Ogunjobi said further: “He (Lawal) even acknowledged that fact when we were before the panel at LTV Mogbejomide and agreed that he was ready to pay rent on the property for as long as Mrs. Raji lives there but up till now, many years after, he has not paid me a dime. I need money. I am a widow with eight children and three of them are in the university. I have to pay school fees and fend for all of them. How do I cope when I am being denied the means through which I can take care of my family?” she asked.

    Although she said she agreed earlier to rent the property to Mrs. Raji and collect rent from Lawal, now, all she wants is her property.

    “The lawmaker is giving me conditions of tenancy on my own property. I think this is very unusual. What I want now is for him to pay me the rent for all the years Mrs. Raji has lived in the house. I don’t want to rent the house out to them again. He can’t dictate to me how much I will rent out my house”, she said.

    Ogunjobi’s lawyer, G.O. Bello said he opted out of the case because of the challenge of executing the court judgment given in favour of his client and because Lawal had always advocated out-of-court settlement.

    “They have denied Mrs.Ogunjobi possession of her property for too long and the earlier she is allowed to take possession of the property the better”, Bello said

    Lawal decried Ogunjobi’s allegations as an attempt to tarnish his reputation and political career because he is no longer involved in the matter.

    He said he was the lawyer to Mrs. Raji, who in 1996 approached him with a court order that she should vacate the property she had occupied since 1968. He said Mrs. Raji did not know that her son had sold the house.

    “That time, 1996, I was a practising lawyer; I was not a politician and the matter was still pending in court before I became an honourable member. Even then, I and the plaintiff lawyer were still in the process of resolving the matter amicably before I became a lawmaker.

    “The plaintiff’s lawyer, Mr. AbdulGaniyu Bello, later came to me at the Assembly to request out-of -court settlement because he knew I was handling the case for the old woman before, and we all agreed to it.

    “I promised to relocate the old woman and pay rent for any apartment we are able to secure for her so that the plaintiff can posses her property”, Lawal said.

    He said they were still in this process when the woman took the same issue to LTV where they were told to work with the earlier agreement of relocating the old woman.

    “Only for Mrs. Ogunjobi to go to a radio station and malign my name and without hearing my side of the story the presenter went on air,” he said.

    “I am now a lawmaker; I cannot wear wig and go back to court. I am no longer involved in the matter and I don’t have interest in the matter again but as an honourable member and being a member of my constituency, I volunteered to pay Mama Raji’s rent but they should look for an accommodation for her”, Lawal said, adding: “I don’t regret my role as a lawyer to the old woman because my responsibility and duty as a lawyer is to my client. Mrs. Ogunjobi may have painted a pathetic story on radio, but we are talking of an old woman here, who is close to 100 years and has been occupying an apartment since1968. I stood by her so that she would not be rendered homeless; I don’t think I have done anything wrong. I did not collect rent from her”.

    Lawal said Mrs. Ogunjobi agreed to rent the apartment to the old woman at N150, 000 per annum and he agreed to pay. “However, I insisted that they should get a lawyer and draft a tenancy agreement for the old woman and Mrs. Ogunjobi to sign. This was where we were, only for the woman to go to a radio station to say I denied her possession of her property”, Lawal said, asking: “Why is she going to the media now for a matter that started in 1996 when in fact we are on the verge of amicable settlement?”

  • Offa: ACN, PDP quarrel over judges’ composition

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State have disagreed over the composition of judges for the hearing of the Offa Local Government election petition appeal.

    The ACN alleged that the composition favoured the PDP.

    But the PDP said it has “absolute confidence in the ability of the panel to do justice and not in any way in doubt in the sincerity of the membership as presently constituted”.

    ACN Chairman Kayode Olawepo said: “The PDP, being the beneficiary of such anomaly, we don’t expect the party to be objective or rational in its reaction. The sabre-rattling is, therefore, expected – and it is true to type. We are glad that after much shadow-boxing, the PDP at last admitted that only two judges are hearing that petition, claiming the third person has been away on a medical trip abroad.

    “Clearly, as is also detectable from the PDP statement, the judge has not been sitting on the panel. Now, if the two judges sitting have cause to disagree on the petitions before them, whose opinion becomes the majority decision, as must be the case in time of dissension? This clearly defeats the puerile and suspicious defence the PDP has mounted.

    “Interesting enough is the fact that the PDP was silent on our allegation that the panel has been granting only applications brought by the PDP while turning down ACN’s. This speaks for itself.

    “On defection, the PDP spokesman was probably on the Mars when Prince Saheed Popoola openly dismissed claims of his so-called defection and reaffirmed his membership of ACN.”

    In a statement by PDP Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Mas’ud Adebimpe, the party said: “As an interested party, the session was properly constituted as provided for by the law and they should disregard the unpatriotic and unfounded claim.

    “To put the record straight, the panel was not only properly constituted but was made up of three eminent judges whose credibility and ability were not in any way doubtful.

    “The third member, Justice E. B. Muhammad, in our investigation, was confirmed through the authority concerned to have travelled out of the country for an urgent medical check-up.

    “The law, however, does not prescribe a quorum that disqualifies the two judges from sitting and hearing the case, if the third member was not available.

    “As a party, we challenge ACN to show where the law prescribes the disqualification of the session on the ground of a member who is legally absent from the session.”

  • ACN, PDP quarrel over Kwara ministry’s burglary

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State are quarrelling over the recent burglary at the Ministry of Finance.

    The ACN demanded the probe of the incident.

    But the PDP accused the opposition of plotting to thwart ongoing police investigation.

    The ruling party urged the “state police command to invite Kwara ACN officials to explain how they obtained information about the items allegedly stolen from the ministry during the suspected burglary when the police, who are by law empowered to provide such information, are yet to make a statement in that regard”.

    The PDP Director of Publicity Alhaji Mas’ud Adebimpe said: “ACN is desperately trying to use misinformation and blackmail to distract the government from its determined drive to positively transform Kwara and its people.

    “We also asked hardworking local government workers to disregard the ACN’s attempt to disrupt the well-intentioned efforts by the government to plug loopholes in local government expenditure and, therefore, ensure that the councils meet their obligations, including the payment of salaries, promptly.

    “The PDP hail all workers for their maturity in participating in the exercise and assure them that the affected councils will pay all outstanding salaries once the exercise is completed.”

    ACN Chairman Kayode Olawepo said: “The PDP is at liberty to rant all it likes on the burglary. We have made our point. And the source of what documents were stolen could be traced to newspaper publications, especially Sahara Reporters.

    “As regard the council workers’ unpaid salary, we say the following: On August 20, our party issued a statement backing the National Union of Local Government Employees’ (NULGE’s) 14-day ultimatum to the Kwara State Government to pay the backlog of salary arrears owed the council workers. In the statement, we urged the government to come clean about the state finances, which we insisted were unhealthy.

    “The PDP and the state government, as usual, dismissed our interventions and said we were inciting workers. But, of course, the government’s spokesman gave contradictory reasons on why they were owing council workers. Addressing reporters on August 22, the Finance Commissioner Demola Banu claimed the delay was due to shortfall in allocations from the Federation Account.

    “On August 26, Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed himself said: ‘There had been drops in the allocation to the states, and delays in allocation meetings and allocation of funds to the local governments. The shortfall since May, June and July, this year, has not been helpful..’

    “When countered with the fact that all the states of the federation are affected by this shortfall and that Kwara alone is owing workers for months, the government made another excuse, back in August, that the salary delay was due to some screening (biometric) to clean up the finances of the councils and guarantee accountability…”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Soldier kills student over quarrel with girlfriend

    Soldier kills student over quarrel with girlfriend

    Emmanuel Papa Ebonyi dreamt of a great future. A future where he would pass his examinations in flying colours, have a great job and support his siblings who had always been there for him. Unfortunately, all these dreams were terminated when a soldier snuffed life out of him just because he tried to be a Good Samaritan.

    His sister Felicia Samuel Ebonyi tells the story in tears. “The unfortunate incident happened in the early hours of 9th August (2012). On that day, my brother, a Higher National Diploma I (HND I) student of Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, Kaduna State met his untimely death in the hands of one Captain Olufela Doyin Erizia.”

    Like so many other people, she just could not believe that it was true. So did it happen? you ask. “My brother was in the company of his friends and they visited Mate Bar Night Club, PZ Sabongari area of Zaria on the night of the previous day to celebrate the birthday of a friend. That was where he met Captain Olufela D. Erizia and his friends.”

    Peace maker bears the brunt

    Everything went well for a while. But suddenly there was a quarrel between Erizia and his girlfriend. Ebonyi intervened warning Erizia against fighting with his girlfriend. That unfortunately turned out to be a grievous offence in Erizia’s dictionary. Infuriated, he took the laws into his hands beating Ebonyi black and blue.

    “He beat up my brother until he was half dead. Along the line his friends rescued him from the soldier and were trying to leave the premises in the vehicle in which they came, but he (Erizia) still chased them and was struggling with the driver of the vehicle. If Ebonyi had known the calamity that would befall him, he would not stop Erizia from fighting his girlfriend, but his sympathy for the womenfolk landed him in an unexpected grave.” Sadly, she continues her story: “When the incident happened, one of my brother’s friends called me on phone and asked me to come over. They took us to the barracks and I met another eye witness. It was not the soldier’s girlfriend, it was another girl. The girlfriend actually ran away and I have been trying to get her to come and tell her side of the story.”

    What about her parents and the other siblings? How are they taking the news of her brother’s demise? “My parents are both late. I have four other siblings and they are all very sad about the development. He is the second to the last born in the family. We used to have an elder sister who died in 2007. She was ill and initially the ailment was diagnosed as typhoid. It was later discovered that it was hepatitis and her death was quite painful.”

    Erizia was apprehended, taken for questioning and interrogations after which he was taken to the Area Command Police Station, Zaria. “However nothing has been heard ever since. We have been kept in the dark on this issue because not only did they refuse to hand over the man to the police authorities but also did not have courtesy to say a word. Sources at the barracks were even saying that he had been posted to another duty beat. It is on this basis that we are calling on the Military HQ, well-meaning Nigerians, human rights activists to see to this matter and make sure that Erizia is brought to book.”

    According to Sadau Garba of the Kaduna Human Rights Association “The offence of the late Ebonyi was that he pleaded with Capt Erizia not to manhandle a lady he jerked up and molested. After mercilessly beating Ebonyi a friend, one Femi David, rushed him to Salama Hospital, Sabongari, Zaria and they directed that he should be taken to Shika Teaching Hospital due to the critical condition. It was on the way to Shika that Emmanuel gave up the ghost.”

    He added that “the family members of the late Ebonyi have made several visits to the Kaduna State Police Command headquarters but the authorities of the Army Barracks Zaria, are not willing to release the said Captain Erizia to the police to investigate this inhuman, barbaric and dastardly act.”

    The Nation also spoke with DSP Aminu Lawal, the Police Public Relations Officer in Kaduna and he confirmed the case saying investigation was in progress.

    He also said, “The authorities of the Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria could not ascertain if Ebonyi was a student of the institution.”

    How is the culprit going to be brought to book is what the Ebonyi family is asking.