Vol 7 No 6 Feb. 18th - 23rd 2009     - 

Rivers Man Recovers Land From Abacha In PH - By Paschal Agbada

A land in Port Harcourt belonging to a retired Permanent Secretary Mr. Samuel David Eke-Spiff has been recovered for him by the Supreme Court from the family of the late maximum ruler, former generalissimo of the Nigerian Army - late Gen. Sani Abacha. In a unanimous decision taken by Justice Pius Aderemi and four other legal luminaries last Friday, a judgment was delivered declaring that the said land which had until now belonged to the late maximum ruler was illegally transferred to him. Delivering the judgment, Justice Aderemi said “ the first plaintiff, a retired permanent secretary in the Rivers State Government was allocated a plot of land at Diobu GRA, Port Harcourt by the Government Of Rivers State. The building lease was registered in his name as No. 78 in volume 25 of the Lands Registry in the office at Port Harcourt. He submitted a building plan for approval, but up till now, his plan has not been approved. “What he later discovered was that his right of occupancy was revoked without any notice to him and of course, no compensation was paid to him. It eventually came to his knowledge that the same piece of land was allocated to Major-General Sani Abacha, now deceased.

On discovery of the anomaly, Mr. Eke Spiff took the state and the military administrator to court, requesting that revocation of his plot and its eventual reallocation to the late ruler who then was a Chief of Defence Staff be declared illegal, null and void. However, in defending themselves, the administrator claimed the certificate of occupancy belonging to Mr. Eke Spiff was revoked when it was found out that he did not develop the plot after two years. They had further agued in their defence that the case was statute-barred simply because Mr. Eke Spiff did not start his case of recovery for the land within three months of revocation of the land. Somehow, on the 18th of November, 1999, the court pronounced that the case was not statute-barred since in actual fact the notice of revocation  of the certificate of occupancy was hidden away from him. On their own, the state did not appeal but instead the administrator of the Estate of late Sani Abacha took the gauntlet and went to the court of Appeal in Port Harcourt.  Fortunately for the plaintiff, the court studied the facts of the matter and threw out the appeal.

Again, not quite satisfied with the decision of the Appeal Court, the administrator appealed to the Supreme Court. But Justice Aderemi noted that the administrator of the late Sani Abacha Estate was not a juristic personality and so could not file an appeal. He averred that since on their own, Rivers State who has the capacity to do so did not, and the military administrator then did not also appeal, then there was no appeal. Aderemi said “it is my quest to see that justice is manifested by this decision that I shall go ahead to treat other issues not withstanding that I have made a pronouncement striking out the appeal as being incompetent. “By re-allocating the same plot of land to Major-General Sani Abacha after revoking the right of occupancy of the plaintiff, the Military Administrator and the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice cannot be said to have satisfied the provisions of section 28 (10) and (2) of the Land Use Act which states as follows:- “It shall not be unlawful for the governor to revoke a right of occupancy for overriding public interest. “By no means can the re-allocation of that plot to Major General Sani Abacha (now deceased) satisfy the aforesaid provisions. Justice Aderemi stressed that the plaintiff Mr. Spiff was not notified of the revocation as it was required by the law.That, according to him was the reason why no compensation was given to him. And really, because no compensation was given to him, it made his case a lot easier. “The Military Administrator and the State therefore have woefully failed to comply with the provisions of the aforesaid Act and consequently transferred nothing to Major General Sani Abacha” he said.