Kwara State Government on Tuesday got a legal green light to proceed with building on the controversial Ile Arugbo land in Ilorin, with the court striking out former Senate President, Bukola Saraki’s case challenging government’s takeover of the land.
Justice
Abiodun Adewara of the Ilorin High Court struck out the Saraki’s case for “lack
of diligent prosecution.”
The judge
struck out the case after the appellants — Saraki’s Asa Investment Ltd — again
failed to call any witness to support their claim that the choice land belonged
to the firm said to be owned by the late Olusola Saraki.
After many
years of using the land to host their political followers in the heart of the
capital city, the government reclaimed the land from the Sarakis in December
2019 and went ahead to clear the land ahead of its use for construction of
another government secretariat.
The
government had said the land originally belonged to the public but was
controversially transferred to a firm owned by Saraki without any payment made
to the government or document issued for that purpose, in one of the most vivid
examples of abuse of power and annexation of public properties for private use.
The Sarakis
in turn challenged the government’s decision by filing a court case to keep
ownership of the land, claiming they have documents to prove ownership of the
property.
After many
months of legal back-and-forth, Justice Adewara on Tuesday struck out the case
after the claimants again failed to call their witness or tender documents to
prove ownership of the land.
Earlier on
Monday when the case came up for hearing, Counsel to the claimants Abdulazeez
Ibrahim had told the court that a joinder to the case Alhaji Sanusi Babaeleku
has suddenly died, leading to the court striking out the name of the deceased.
When the case
resumed on Tuesday, Ibrahim said they were replacing Alhaji Babaeleku with one
Alhaji Abubakar Oluwatoyin, a request that the court granted and then asked
them to proceed with their case by calling their other witnesses.
The counsel
however said they were not prepared to proceed because their lead counsel Dr
Akin Onigbinde (SAN), whom he claimed has the relevant documents to proceed
with the case, had just lost his mother and was preparing for the burial.
Counsel to
the Kwara State Government, Salman Jawondo, however, drew the attention of the
court to what he called a deliberate attempt to delay the hearing and
dispensation of the case after more than one year of judicial filibustering,
urging the court to dismiss the case for lack of diligent prosecution.
He cited the
previous failings of the claimants to prosecute their case, an observation that
the judge said was valid and therefore struck out the case “for lack of
diligent prosecution by the claimants.”
Jawondo
meanwhile has said the government was willing to press counter claims of
ownership of the land against the Asa Investment Limited.
The court has
adjourned to 17 March, 2021 to hear the counter claims.
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