Court bars Navy from encroaching Lekki communities
The Lagos State High Court sitting in Epe has restrained the Nigerian Navy and the Office of the Chief of Naval Staff from trespassing, destroying, or constructing on lands in communities located in the Lekki Coastal Area Development of the state.
This declaration was made by Hon. Justice I. O. Harrison on August 28 to extend the injunctive order made against the same parties by Hon. Justice Animahun in early August.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that the Incorporated Trustees of Lekki Coastal Area Development Association in suit EPD/15715/LMW/2024 and Al Gasali Global Ventures Ltd in suit EPD/15713/LMW/2024 had separately sued the Nigerian Navy and the Office of the Chief of Naval Staff for forceful takeover, destruction of property, and harassment on their lands.
Justice Animahun, in the two suits, granted the injunction that restrained the “defendants, their officers, agents, workmen, artisans, or anybody from further trespassing and further demolishing the claimants/applicants’ buildings or in any other manner interfering with the ownership, control, possession, and management of a large expanse of land lying in Origanrigan, Oshoroko, and Lekki in Ibeju Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State.”
The court adjourned the matter till August 21 for renewal or discharge of the order.
However, following the absence of the defendants on the adjourned date, the court, presided over by Justice Harrison, renewed the order and declared that it would be in effect until the hearing of the motion on notice.
In the document obtained by our correspondent, Justice Harrison said, “It is hereby ordered that the court observes that in spite of processes, inclusive of the motion on notice and hearing notice on the defendants, they have failed, refused, and neglected to appear in court either personally or through counsel.
“The court has no choice but to further extend the interim order of injunction granted by Animahun J. for a further period. The interim order shall subsist pending the hearing of the motion on notice dated August 9, 2024, which has been served on the defendants.”
The court adjourned the matter till September 17 and ordered that the hearing notice be sent to the defendants again.
