Adelanwa Bamgboye
9 October 2008
The reopening of a land suit before Justice Lawal Akapo of the Lagos High Court has made one Chief Arimiyau Ekundayo, a surveyor and general contractor, to petition the National Judicial Council (NJC).
According to Ekundayo, the suit which was reopened in Justice Akapo's court had earlier been concluded by Justice Olusola Williams of the Lagos High court, when Oba Idowu Ojoijo, the Alayobo of Ayoboland, a community in Lagos State, sued Ekundayo over 40 acres of land at Igbo- Ilogbo Alaja, Megida road, Ayobo, Lagos State. Ekundayo who was the defendant in the suit earlier filed by the monarch, claimed in the petition that judgement had been entered in his favour by Justice Williams in October 2005 and being dissatisfied with the judgement, the monarch had proceeded to the Court of Appeal, Lagos division three times and on each occasion, the suit was struck out.
The petitioner, who also copied the Chief Judge of Lagos state in his petition, claimed that after the suit had been stuck out at the Court of Appeal, he came back to Justice Williams for an order granting possession pursuant to the judgement and the order was granted to him by the judge.
He further said he proceeded to the office of the Deputy Sheriff of the high court for warrant of possession which was issued to him and he further sought and obtained the assistance of the police to accompany the Sheriff of the high court for the purpose of executing the judgement of Justice Williams and on May 2, 2008, the sheriff moved into the land and delivered possession to him. However, Ekundayo stated that to his greatest surprise, the claimant sought and obtained an order of maintenance of status quo before Justice Lawal Akapo of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, in suit no ID/883/08, which is entirely different from the suit earlier executed
'To my greatest surprise, I heard that the claimant had sought and obtained an Order maintenance of status quo before honourable Justice Lawal Akapo of the Lagos State High Court in suit no ID/883/08, which is entirely different from the suit we had earlier executed and this is strange and novel to the legal profession,' Ekundayo wrote.
The petitioner asked the NJC to determine if it is proper for the court to reopen a matter already concluded by the Court of Appeal and whether it is proper to order the maintenance of status quo two months after the execution had been concluded by the Deputy Sheriff. He averred that as a result of the order, the claimant who was adjudged the loser in the suit, attacked his surveyor and two other workers on the land in dispute on July 10, 2008, where two people were brutally attacked and later certified dead.
He further stated that the judiciary which had been adjudged as the best arm of the three arms of the government, being the last hope the common man, should not be allowed to be caught in the web of land speculators and requested the NJC to thoroughly investigate the matter and if the allegation is correct and need be for a judge to reopen the suit, the NJC should re-assign it to another judge within the Lagos High Court.
in the suit filed before Justice Akapo, the monarch had urged the judge to restrain Ekundayo from taking possession of the land or committing any trespass on the land and also demanded that Justice Akapo set aside the judgement of Justice Williams for being wrongly obtained, given and giving a ruling on the suit, Justice Akapo restrained Ekundayo from taking possession of the land and further restrained Ekundayo or any officials of the government from demolishing any building on the land pending the final determination of the suit.
Meanwhile, the judge has replied the petition filed by Ekundayo to the NJC, stating that when the matter was assigned to him, he ordered hearing notice to be issued to the parties, but before the matter could be heard, the defendant had made attempts to execute the judgement of Justice Williams, which was why he gave the interim order of injunction restraining him from further acts after his counsel refused to give an undertaking that no demolition will take place on the land.
The judge also stated that he has no personal interest in the suit and does not know any of the parties involved.
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