10 Years After, Court Hears Dei-dei Land Owners’ Case Against FCT Minister

Ten years after landowners at Zaudan Pazeri and Filindabo Layouts in Dei-dei under the auspices of Zaudan Pazeri Land Owners Association instituted a case against the minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the FCT High Court 42 sitting at Kubwa District under Justice Adelaja has commenced hearing of the matter.

The land owners in 2013, instituted a case against the FCT minister over what they described as wrongful revocation of their plots of land which was duly allocated to them by the then minister, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, urging the court to declare them as rightful owners of their land.

After the court proceedings yesterday, the second claimant representing all the claimants, Ephraim Chioke, commended the court for opening their case, expressing confidence that they hope to get justice from the court.

Chioke said, “Our expectation, as usual, has been that justice should be done. We were allocated these properties, they were not allocated to ourselves by ourselves, but by the government, and we paid all the sundry fees. We took possession and suddenly, we noticed some people on the property.

“We have to seek redress. We have gotten an injunction restraining the people from doing anything there. But, we are still fighting to get a final judgement, where the court will declare that we are the owners of the property,” he said.

The chairman of the Zaudan Pazeri Property Owners’ Association, Elder Friday Ugoala, commended the efforts of the FCT minister, Malam Muhammad Bello to settle the matter out of court while waiting for the reports from the Land Users Adjudication Committee (LUAC).

“I must appreciate the outgoing FCT minister, because when the former judge, Justice Banjoko ordered the defence counsel to see that the matter is settled amicably out of court. The process was going on, and when the file got to the minister’s office, the file was not delayed.

“He minuted it to the Land Users Adjudication Committee (LUAC) to investigate and report back for him to have a cause of action. Unfortunately, though, the matter has been with LUAC for about three years, and assuming that they have reported back to the minister, I think I probably would not have still been in the court.

“But all the same, since they have not invited us to brief us or to talk to us, that is why we are still in court. We still understand that LUAC is working. Only that their speed is affecting us negatively. Our members are dying, one after the other without fulfilling their dream all this while, that is unfortunate,” he said.

The counsel to FCTA, Barr. Ezekiel Ituma, told journalists that in the course of the proceedings, the claimants (Dei-Dei land owners) wanted to tender some documents which included the allocation papers, “but because some of the documents were not in a proper manner to be admitted in evidence before the court, the matter was adjourned to June 20, 2023, for the continuation of hearing and specifically because there are too many parties in the matter, about 401 and there are so many documents to tender.”

“The court has given us that date specifically so that it will have the opportunity to sit down to listen to the case very well and all the parties will make the arguments either in favour or against the case,” he said.