BOBA Granted Leave To Challenge Senator Over Expropriated Abuja Land

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, has granted the Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA, leave to file a cross-appeal against a judgment of the FCT High Court in a dispute involving a land in the Central Business District of Abuja.

The court also dismissed the preliminary objection filed by Eagle Aluminium Industries Limited that sought to stop BOBA from filing a cross-appeal.

In a unanimous ruling of the 3 justices of the appellate Court delivered by Justice Petr Chudi Obiorah, the court held that the objection of Eagle Aluminium was an abuse of court of process, pre-emptive and presumptuous as it was against the rules of the court . According to Justice Obiorah

” There is no provision in the  Court of Appeal Rules, 2021, where a party served with a motion on notice and who wishes to oppose the application is permitted to do so by the filing of preliminary objection. Parties are not allowed to invent their own rules at their whims and caprice.” The ruling was endorsed by Justice Hamma Akawu Barka and Justice Ishaq Mohammed Sani.

With the ruling, the alumni body will join Eagle Aluminium Ltd as well as the Minister of the FCT and the FCTA in challenging the December 2020 judgment of the FCT High Court that conferred ownership of the  disputed 6500 square meters land on Haida Properties Limited, a company in which a former minister who is also a serving Senator  is said to have substantial interest. The Court of Appeal had earlier declined to endorse a bilateral settlement agreement reached between  Eagle Aluminium and Haida Properties to jointly develop the disputed because the settlement agreement did not include other parties in the land dispute .

BOBA, one of the foremost alumni associations in Nigeria with General Yakubu Gowon, the Sultan of Sokoto and Justice Lawal Uwais on its Board of Trustees, had also filed a petition against a lawyer, Ms Stella Oyiugo at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary for allegedly representing the association in court without authorisation. The IGP has also filed criminal charges against the suspects indicted by the police investigation report on the same land deal, but the suspects are yet to be arraigned.

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