By Christopher Oji
The High Court of Lagos State, sitting in Epe Judicial Division and presided over by Justice W. Animahun, has extended the interim injunctions earlier granted against the Chief of Naval Staff and the Nigerian Navy on an expanse of land in the state.
Justice Animahun had earlier, in two separate matters, Al Gasali Global Ventures Limited vs. The Nigerian Navy and The Chief of Naval Staff, EPD/15713/LMW/2024, and the Incorporated Trustees of Lekki Coastal Area Development Association vs. Nigerian Navy and Chief of Naval Staff, EPD/15715/LMW/2024, respectively, granted interim injunctions restraining the “defendants, their officers agents, workmen, artisans or anybody from further trespassing and further demolishing the claimants’/applicants’ building or in any other manner interfering with the ownership, control, possession and management of a large expanse of land lying at Origanrigan, Oshoroko and Lekki, in Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State.”
Justice Animahun, while extending the lifespan of their earlier interim injunctions, ruled that: “I am inclined to grant it because the defendants have been served with the enrolled order on preemptive relief expected to ignite pre-action protocol.
“Accordingly, the motion is granted. The order is renewed for seven days from today. Case adjourned to August 21, 2024, for renewal or discharge of the order.”
Two separate claimants, Al- Gasali Global Ventures and the Incorporated Trustees of Lekki Coastal Area Development Association, had in separate suits dragged the Nigerian Navy and the Chief of Naval Staff to court over “forceful takeover of their land, destruction of their properties and continued intimidation and harassment.”
The Lekki Coastal Area Development Association comprises communities and villages whose lands were compulsorily acquired by the Lagos State Government under the state’s global acquisition programme and compensated with the parcel of land now in dispute. They were granted Certificate of Occupancy No. 9/9/2014M, dated June 8, 2024. In their statement of claim, the Lekki Coastal Area Development Association claimed to be the beneficial owner of 375.019 hectares of land vide the Certificate of Occupancy No. 9/9/2014M dated 8th June, 2014, while Al Gasali Global Ventures claimed about 66.107 hectares within the same Certificate of Occupancy 9/9/2014M, dated 8th June, 2014, and covered by a Deed of Gift dated 21st May, 2019, registered as No. 36 at page 36, Vol. 2638A of the Lagos State Land Registry, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, all being, situated and lying at Origanrigan, Oshoroko and Lekki, in Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State.
The claimants also claimed to have been in undisturbed possession until July 23, 2024, when agents, officers, men, workmen and artisans of the defendants invaded their land “vi et armis” and have now stationed naval officers and thugs on the land to dispossess, dislodge and displace them from the land.
The Lekki Coastal Area Development Association also claimed that the Nigerian Navy and the Chief of Naval Staff, through their agents, officers, men, workmen and artisans, have destroyed beacons, pillars, perimeter fences and buildings on the land and have continued to erect structures and buildings on the land at an alarmingly rapid rate.
They also claimed that agents, officers, men and artisans of the defendants threatened to deal with the officials and accredited community representatives of Lekki Coastal Area Development Association and the staff and employees of Al Gasali Global Ventures when they challenged them on the land, which has made it difficult, risky and unsafe to even attempt to take photographs of the activities of the defendants on the land.
The applicants, while praying the court to grant the injunction, claimed that it was needed to “preserve the ‘res’ from distortion, destruction and decimation of the original corporate purpose the land was intended for” by them.