This is the story, brought to us by some aggrieved tenants, of a
Judge who has wreaked great hardship on them by issuing conflicting
orders that have sent them evicted twice from the premises in which they
carry out their legitimate businesses and earn their livelihood.
Some tenants of U.L.O. Plaza, a property located at No. 34, Sokode
Crescent, FCT Abuja sealed by the police and court officials on the
3/2/2017 at about 5.00am in the morning pursuant to a Warrant of
Possession issued by Hon. Justice S.E. Aladetoyinbo in the case of Bil
Construction Ltd. V. Gazi Construction Ltd., stormed the FCT High Court
today to challenge their forceful eviction from the property owned by
U.L.O. Consultants Ltd.
The tenants, in a motion filed by their lawyers, are seeking an order
restoring them to possession on the grounds that the Hon. Judge had
made a previous order restoring possession of the property to U.L.O.
Consultants Ltd. back in 2014 when an earlier warrant of possession had
been issued by the same judge in the same case of Bil Construction Ltd.
V. Gazi Construction Ltd. The judge had made that previous order
acknowledging that the Warrant of Possession he issued did not bind
U.L.O. Consultants Ltd. who was not a party in the case, and also that
fair hearing was not extended to U.L.O Consultants when the eviction was
made in 2014. Bil Construction Ltd. appealed against this Ruling and
the matter is still pending before the Court of Appeal.
It therefore came as a shock to the tenants and occupants of the
U.L.O. Plaza (which includes Core TV) when court officials and a
truck-load of heavily armed policemen stormed the Plaza in the early
hours of Friday, 3rd February 2017, and forcefully evicted
the tenants pursuant to a Warrant of Possession exactly similar to the
same issued and set aside in 2014 and still in the same case of Bil
Construction Ltd. V. Gazi Construction Ltd. This Warrant was signed by
the same Judge who gave the Ruling setting that of 2014 aside while the
Court of Appeal is yet to determine the Appeal filed against his Ruling.
It would then seem that the Hon. Justice Aladetoyinbo is setting aside
his own order, an act which can only be done by the Appeal Court. The
Tenants were not given any prior notice or warning before the eviction
on 3/2/17 and suffered substantial damage to their properties as a
result.
Another angle to this peculiar series of events, according to the
application filed before the court, is that there is another subsisting
Order of Injunction from High Court 25 (FCT) restraining the Deputy
Sheriff and Bil Construction from interfering with the possession of the
property by U.L.O. Consultants Ltd. pending the determination of the
issue of title between U.L.O Consultants Ltd. and Bil Construction Ltd.
which the Hon. Justice Aladetoyinbo (Court 3) is well aware of. It would
now seem that the Hon. Justice not only overturned his own previous
Ruling, but also that of another High Court Judge who had been (and is
still) hearing the matter of title between U.L.O Consultants Ltd. and
Bil Construction Ltd.
The tenants, who attended the court in their numbers, went home very
disappointed as they were informed by the Registrar of Court that their
case (which was fixed and listed for hearing on this day 15/12/2017) has
been postponed to 20/3/17.