A defence witness in a land dispute case between Mr. Cletus Ibeto, chief executive officer (CEO) of Ibeto Group and Mr. Daniel Chukwudozie, owner Dozzy Oil and Gas, Mr. Ike Onwuchuluba, has told a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, that part of the land the claimant offered to sell to the defendant was encroached into the land sold by Nigeria Technical Company Limited (NITECO).
At the resumed hearing, Onwuchuluba, who is also the company secretary and Solicitor of Dozzy Oil & Gas Limited and Sungreen Oil and Gas Limited, led in evidence by Mr. Emmanuel Ukala, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), also testified having adopted his witness statements on oath.
He confirmed that the defendants, Sungreen Oil and Gas Limited acquired a total of 122 hectares of land from NITECO, when it discovered that Ibeto had no title to substantial parts of the land he sought to sell to the defendants, after collecting the sum of N3, 295,000,000 and $3,000,000, being an outstanding debt owed the defendants by the claimant, which was agreed should be applied as additional payment for the land.
The witness stated that the third defendant approached NITECO to acquire the land for its business purposes when it discovered that the claimant (Ibeto) does not have any title to a substantial portion of the land he negotiated to sale to the defendants and was unable to explain the discrepancies observed in his title.
Under cross-examination by Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), Onwuchuluba explained that the land the defendants bought from NITECO was different from the one contained in the 40 acres sub-leased to Nigeria Shipbuilders Limited, the head lessor of Ibeto Energy Development Limited.
When asked to confirm if Chief Cletus Ibeto is listed as a director or shareholder of Ardeja Trading Limited, where the $3000, 000.00 was paid into, the witness stated that the said Ardeja account was the account in which Ibeto instructed the defendants to transfer the said $3,000,000 which he borrowed from the defendants.
The witness went further to state that the initial $3,000, 000 which Ibeto admitted to have received and repaid to Dozzy Oil in Naira denomination was equally paid to the same Ardeja Trading Limited account.
He (witness) further stated that the sum of N3, 295,000,000 which Ibeto admitted on oath to have also received from Dozzy were also paid into Companies’ accounts where Ibeto is neither listed as shareholder nor director, despite that, Daniel Chukwudozie paid the funds into those non-linked accounts to the claimant based on the trust and the friendly relationship he had with Ibeto.
Earlier, Mr. Sylvanus Nwakpila another defence witness and registrar of titles, Ministry of Lands and Survey, Rivers State, testified in the matter.
Nwakpila had in his witness deposition, which he adopted, also tendered the correct Land Registry copy of the Deed of Sub-lease registered as No.47/47/280 in the Rivers State Lands Registry which showed that Ibeto Energy Development Company Limited was granted a sub-lease of approximately 7.8 hectares of Land by Odoh Holdings Limited, contrary to the claim by Ibeto that his company was granted a sub- lease of approximately 22.8 hectares of land at NITECO Shipyard Area, Reclamation 11 Layout.
The witness had under cross-examination by Henry Bello, counsel for Ibeto, stated that a leasee cannot acquire more land than his head lessor through which it derived its title.
The witness also stated that the certification he made on the document submitted by Ibeto was in error, and which was detected when the Deeds Registry was reviewing its response to an inquiry from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), on the said title documents and the same became invalidated on account of such discovery.
The witness further discountenanced the survey plan presented by Ibeto, which referred to the location of the disputed land as Bundu-Ama community, asserting that the correct nomenclature of the location of the land is NITECO Shipyard Area, Reclamation 11 Layout and that the disputed land was leased to NITECO by the Rivers State government.
The registrar of deeds also confirmed the existence of a Deed of Assignment between Sungreen and NITECO in the records of the Lands Registry.
Trial formally closed and the matter adjourned till March 20, 2023, for adoption of written addresses based on the agreement of the counsel on both sides.
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