Judiciary
The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin has reserved for judgment the suit instituted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) against one Chief Victor Ugiabe over the ownership of a piece of land allocated to the agency by the then Bendel State Government.
The suit followed the dissatisfaction of the agency over the Oct. 10, 2013 judgment of a Benin High Court dismissing its case on the ownership of the disputed land and granting Ugiabe’s counter claim as well as awarding N600,000 in his favour for trespass on the land.
Justice A. Edodo-Eruaga, in his judgment, held that the then Bendel State Government that granted a Certificate of Occupancy on the land to NAN did not properly extinguish the customary title of Ugiabe before allocating same to the agency.
The court further nullified and set aside the agency’s Certificate of Occupancy on the land.
The agency, however, approached the Court of Appeal, insisting that Ugiabe had not established title to the parcel of land.
NAN recalls that the land totalling approximately 8669.529 square metres and located in Ugbowo, Benin, was allocated to the agency by the Col. John Inienger military administration in the then Bendel State.
NAN also reports that the Certificate of Occupancy No BDSR7147 which conferred on the agency the statutory right of occupancy of the land was executed on Dec. 9, 1988.
Since the execution of the statutory right of occupancy, the agency had continued to pay the annual ground rent.
(NAN)
-Mar 10, 2021 @ 1;25pm
Tags: Appeal Court reserves judgment in NAN land dispute
