Nigeria Content Online

An Abuja High
Court, on Tuesday, said that an order forcefully ejecting Eseme Eyiboh,
the chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, from
his house in Abuja was given in error. The court ordered Mr. Eyiboh to
take back possession of the home.

Earlier this month,
armed policemen stormed Mr. Eyiboh’s residence, located at 7A Iyamoye
Close, off Gimbiya Street, Area 11, Garki, at about 8 a.m and threw out
his belongings. They were accompanied by officials of the court and
relations of the man who is disputing the property with the lawmaker.

History of the case

Mr. Eyiboh, a
member from Akwa Ibom State, has been engaged in a contentious dispute
with Senator Hassan Muhammed Gusau since 2008 over the land on which he
erected his house.

The lawmaker said
that he bought the property in 2007 from the family of late Sheik
Mujaddadi. However, Mr. Gusau also claimed to have purchased the same
property from the same administrators.

When he discovered
the counter sale, Mr. Eyiboh sued the administrators of Mujaddadi’s
estate and sought a court order to keep from being evicted from a
property he claimed he validly bought.

However, in
February 2008, Mr. Eyiboh testified that the senator invaded his home
with 14 young men, a team of armed policemen, and a bailiff from the
Upper Court Area with the intent to evict him.

Mr. Gusau, a
senator from Zamfara, had got a writ of possession from a Sharia court
in Jigawa State and a letter from an Abuja Upper Area Court judge,
directing the police to aid the enforcement of the eviction. Mr. Eyiboh
said that he called in his lawyers who intervened and succeeded in
dissuading the team from carrying out the eviction.

Last month, the
member petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related
Offences Commission (ICPC), alleging that Mr. Akoyi, the judge who
authorised the letter, had abused his office and should be investigated
by the commission.

“I strongly believe
that M.U. Akoyi attempted to help my adversaries take illegal
possession of my property, because he must either have been bribed or
given some other incentives to knowingly exceed his jurisdiction,” Mr.
Eyiboh said.

“I cannot
comprehend how an Upper Area Court in Gwagwalada can direct execution
against a property located in Garki, in the centre of the city,” he
said.

In his written
address, Mr. Gusau argued that he had asked Mr. Eyiboh to sell the
property to him because Sharia law does not allow a non-Muslim to buy
the estate of a Muslim when he dies.

However, Mr. Eyiboh
dispelled that argument, saying that the Sharia Law clause does not
specify that the buyer must be a Muslim, but rather, that the buyer
must be a neighbour, which Mr. Eyiboh was, and Mr. Gusau was not.

The ruling

Delivering the
ruling, Othman Musa said that the court’s decision took precedence over
any of Mr. Gusau’s eviction orders, including the most recent one made
on June 3, 2010. He ordered that the Chief Registrar of the High Court
take the necessary steps to restore Mr. Eyiboh’s possession of the
property without delay.

“I have gone
through the prayers and its counter views canvassed by the third
respondents (Mr. Gusau). It shows clearly that the application has
merit,” said Mr. Musa.

“It is regrettable that the court, on May 28, granted an ex parte
order, which temporarily dispossessed Eyiboh of his valid property.”