Abuja – December 05, 2023 – Viewpoint Housing News.
Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has been sued by eleven locals and companies for his intentions of knocking down the houses, businesses, and assets that they leased from the federal Nigerian Railway Corporation.
Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority & 6 Ors. v. Messrs. U. Maduka & 11 Ors. is the complaint filed at the Federal High Court with the filing number No/FHC/EN/CS/168/2023.
The plaintiffs in the suit, which was started by Originating Summons, requested an order of perpetual injunction prohibiting the Enugu State Government and its agencies from interfering in any way with the rights of the aforementioned occupants, as well as an interpretation of Sections 5(3) b), 1, and 49 of the Land Use Act regarding the rights of the state government over federal lands in a state.
Three questions for decision and five reliefs for answering the questions negatively were developed by the plaintiffs, via the assistance of their legal counsel.
In the meantime, Bona Ononugbo, a lawyer for various plaintiffs, condemned the government’s misuse of power in a speech to the press. He claims that although they filed a lawsuit against the government on November 16, 2023, the state government, in a clear abuse of the legal system, filed a second lawsuit in Suit No. E/992/2023 at the State High Court on November 20, 2023, against Nigeria Railways Corporation and six other affected occupants, some of whom were listed as unknown persons.
According to a court document that was made accessible the media, First City Monument Bank and five other parties are named as defendants, while the Enugu State Government and Attorney General are the only plaintiffs.
The government is requesting, among other things, a declaration that the defendants’ actions and conduct in relation to building construction, vehicle loading, banking, trading, buying and selling, and causing environmental hazards, pollution, and degradation within 76.20 metres of the centre line on Chris Chemist’s left side of Okpara Avenue-Market Road on the railway level crossing are unlawful and unconstitutional.
On November 23, 2023, the government also acquired an interim injunction against the affected inhabitants through the Attorney General of Enugu State despite hiding the relevant information from the hearing court, Justice C.O. Ajah.
“On receipt of the processes filed by the government, said that, it was discovered that the Enugu government failed to disclose to the court the facts concerning the properties sought to be acquired,” Ononugbo stated, bemoaning the state government’s misuse of the legal system.
“It is now obvious that the government of Enugu has sinister motives and lacks honesty and transparency. The purported bus terminal project is a land-grabbing scheme of the present administration. This project is masqueraded as a public interest project when in reality it is not, but a ploy to dispossess people’s property, like in the case of New Market for the same project under the former Governor Sullivan Chime, which Ugwuanyi administration came and shared among political cronies at the expense of the poor masses.”
