Justice David Osiagor of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has been urged to recuse himself from further conducting proceedings in a suit instituted by a retired naval officer, Admiral Festus Porbeni, against the state government.
Porbeni instituted the action before the Federal High Court, praying it to restrain the state government from interfering on his land located in Lekki area of the state.
Porbeni had filed a suit to challenge the alleged demolition of his property located at B20, Wole Olateju Crescent, off Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1 in Eti-Osa Local government Area by the state government.
But the Lagos State Government, in an application filed by a state counsel from the Ministry of Justice, Adebayo Haroun, on behalf of the government, stated that it has no confidence of getting a fair hearing before the court owing to the refusal of the presiding judge, Justice Osiagor, to hear its pending applications.
The retired naval officer and his company, Admiralty Fleet Limited (BICS Garden), had instituted an action against the state Attorney-General; National Inland Waterways Authority; and the Chairman, Lagos State Task Force, as first to third defendants in the suit.
The plaintiffs have urged the court to declare that the alleged forceful entry and invasion of their premises by the defendants amount to trespass and a breach of the plaintiffs fundamental rights to own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria guaranteed by Section 43 of the Constitution.
But Lagos State, through its application, had argued that Justice Osiagor refused to hear its application dated October 15, 2021 challenging the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, Lagos division to hear and determine “a matter pertaining to land.”
It stated that whenever an issue of jurisdiction is raised before a court of law, it behoves the court to first of all determine the issue before any other.
The counsel to the state submitted that while the application challenging the jurisdiction of the court was still pending, the judge decided to hear and grant an application for an injunction in favour of the Plaintiffs.
The lawyer also stated that on November 5, 2021, the court again ignored and refused to take either the pending application challenging its jurisdiction or the application for stay of execution, pending the determination of an appeal filed by the defendants on October 22, 2021, but went on to further direct the defendants to vacate the land.
Haroun further stated that on November 1, 2021, the Honourable Attorney General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), wrote a letter to the Honourable Chief Judge (HCJ) of the Federal High Court requesting the HCJ to transfer the case file of the matter to another court.
“However, when the matter came up for hearing on November 5, 2021, rather than wait for and/or respect the powers of the Chief Judge to approve or reject the request, Justice Osiagor continued to hear the matter and made further order directing defendants/applicants to vacate the land”, Haroun maintained.
He also stated that the court granted the order of injunction on October 18, 2021, despite being made aware that the act for which an injunction was being sought was a completed act.
Haroun further alleged that the defendants/applicants are not confident of getting a fair hearing before the court, given the continued refusal and neglect of the court to hear their pending applications challenging jurisdiction and for a stay of execution of the order of injunction granted on October 18, 2021, pending appeal”.
In an affidavit filed in support of the application and deposed to by one Saka Agbedina, a litigation clerk in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice averred that the government or its agents are not and have never been on the occupation of the land in dispute.
Agbedina stated that the only business the Lagos State Special Task Force had on the land in dispute was to remove the encroachers/land grabbers found on the land on October 24, 2021, by the Lagos State Property Protection Law of 2016
He also claimed that since the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers handed over possession to Tetrazzini Food Limited, neither the Lagos State Government nor any of its agencies have returned to the land.
Agbedina further stated that “the plaintiffs have continued to disturb the rights of the petitioner, Messrs Tetrazzini Foods Limited to peaceful and quiet enjoyment of the land granted via Certificate of Occupancy issued by the Governor of Lagos State and registered as 24/24/1991AT dated 16th day of December 1991 and Deed of Rectification registered as 32/32/2073 dated 12th August 2002 both kept in the Lands Registry, Office Ikeja, Lagos State”.
