Court Adjourns FCT Land Grabbing Case To July 4 

An Abuja High Court has adjourned till July 4, 2023 for hearing the case between a land owner, Mr Lucky Eshiole Iluogue and Penthouse Property Ltd, some unknown persons, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).

When the case came up for hearing yesterday, the trial judge, Justice U.P. Kekemeke, insisted that unless there was evidence of service on the unknown persons, the case would not be heard.

Justice Kekemeke therefore adjourned the case to July 4, 2023, for a hearing.

The claimant (Lucky Eshiole Iluogue), a former staff member of Sheraton Hotel while on the employment of the organisation through the cooperative society and Sheraton had an arrangement with FCDA to enable the workers to own their houses.

Consequently, interested members of staff (including Iluogue) were allocated plots of land at the Sabon Lugbe.

Upon his retirement, Iluogue who had taken possession of his plot moved to the site to begin construction two years ago.

To his surprise, some persons suspected to be butchers had trespassed on the plot and when he confronted them, the police invited him where he presented the documents allocating the land to him by the relevant authorities of the FCT.

While the matter was still under investigation, he discovered that the police had aligned with trespassers and approached the court for redress.

Since September 2021 when the court procedure began, there have been challenges to effect the service of the court on the unknown persons.

Apart from Penthouse Property Ltd, who is a known party in the suit, others have hidden their identities and to avoid such persons from laying claim to the land after the judgement, the court insisted that the unknown persons must be included in the case and duly served.

 This has posed a major hindrance to the continuation of the case in court.

It is against this backdrop that the hearing of the suit yesterday was shifted to July 4, 2023 the second defendants (unknown persons) to be served.

The counsel to the claimant, Barr Eusebuis Anyanwu, said he had checked the court file and there was no proof of any record on the service of the second defendants (unknown persons).

He said apart from the unknown persons, all the other defendants were yesterday notified of the proceedings of the court.