Court orders arrest of Abuja lawyer over land-grabbing claims
Court orders arrest of Abuja lawyer over land-grabbing claims
A Magistrate’s court sitting in Wuse Zone 6 of the Federal Capital Territory has ordered the arrest of an Abuja-based lawyer, Adewale Adebayo, over “criminal trespass”.
The warrant of arrest was dated February 21, 2022 and sighted by our correspondent on Friday.
An Abuja based businesswoman, Uju Ohanenye, had accused the lawyer of damaging her fence and taking possession of over 6000 square meters of her land.
Uju, who operates a recreation center on the land at Katampe extension area of the Federal Capital Territory, had taken the matter to court and got an order restraining Adebayo and others from the land.
Despite this, she accused Adebayo of hiring thugs to disrupt ongoing works on her land.
She said, “There is this white House in Katampe Extension. The owner is Adewale Adebayo. He broke the fence and entered my park at Katampe Extension and took over 6000 sqms of my land.
“I have approval from Development Control and offer letters from park and recreation under the Federal Capital Development Agency.
I equally have a court order from the high court where both the government and individuals are restricted from entering the land or disturbing my work.
“With all these, he gathers thugs and would not even allow me work on my land.
“They kept fighting and throwing stones at us. I wrote a petition letter to development control but they couldn’t even control them due to their lawlessness.
“They continued pouring laterite sand to cover the waterways and everybody seemed afraid to stop him and his thugs. ”
Adebayo denied unleashing thugs on her, adding the land in question doesn’t belong to her.
He said, “I have not encroached on her land and I didn’t not send thugs after her. She has no land here.
“What she was claiming in the court was that she was given a 22 years sublease in 2007 to operate something there. So, the land is not her own and according to what she’s saying her landlord is the FCDA and they are saying she is not their tenant. By law, they would not have given the land to her without telling me.”
SOURCE : PUNCH