Justice Elizabeth Idowu Alakija of a Lagos High court has granted a Lagos- based businessman, Felix Ezeamama, ownership of a property situated along Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, after a prolonged legal battle.
Alakija, after going through the terms of settlement averred by parties in the dispute, ruled that the Chief Executive Officer of Web Towers Limited, Ezeamama, should reclaim ownership of the contentious property situated on No 41, Kingsway Road, in the highbrow Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
The said property became the subject of controversy, following reports of possible unscrupulous dealing involving Ezeamama and one Halima Abubakar.
However, during the pendency of the case, the court heard that the property was formerly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria and managed by the Federal Ministry of Housing, with 14 Federal Government civil servants as sitting tenants.
In 2005, the Federal Government adopted a policy to sell its landed property in different parts of Nigeria, including Ikoyi. For sale of the property and administration of the policy, a Presidential Implementation Committee was set up and the sitting tenants were given the right of first refusal to buy.
On March 30, 2006, the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development informed the tenants of its intention to redevelop the property, and gave them 30 days to vacate the premises and hand over the keys to the Controller, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development .
However, the occupants remonstrated with the Federal Government to no avail. And on July 8, 2008, the tenants entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Web Towers Limited, with respect to their rights over the said property.
By these agreements, Web Towers Limited was empowered to negotiate with the Presidential Implementation Committee to secure Letters of Offer to buy the property or a replacement of the property for the tenants.
Upon the success of that negotiation, the tenants assigned their rights of first refusal over the property to Web Towers Limited, in consideration of the sum of N7 million as payment to each of the sitting tenants.
But Halima Abubakar, having retired from the civil service, was not counted among the legal tenants but was in illegal occupation of the property. In consideration of these agreements, and as part payment of the N7 million agreed sum for the assignment of said rights/interests of each tenant over the property to the company, Web Towers Limited paid N500,000 to the tenants of the subject property.
Dissatisfied with her exclusion, Abubakar approached the court in suit (LD/2036GCMW/16) seeking remedy. In its judgment, the court ordered that Abubakar, upon receipt of a compensatory sum from Web Towers Limited, should within 30 days of payment of the said sum, vacate the premises, as has been done by the other tenants.