Turai Yar’Adua, widow of late former President of Nigeria, Umar Musa Yar’Adua on Thursday defeated Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of President Goodluck Jonathan in the tussle for the ownership of a land measuring about 1.84 hectares, which was allocated to Turai’s non-governmental organization, Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF) while she was still the country’s First Lady.
The parcel of land, plot no. 1347 Cadastral Zone AOO, Central Business District, Abuja, FCT, was reallocated to Mrs. Jonathan’s Peace Mission on November 2, 2011 by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed, after Goodluck Jonathan, who was the Vice President then, became the substantive President after the death of his predecessor.
Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua had complained that the land allocated to WAYEF on 19 February 2010 had been taken over by Mrs. Jonathan. She also secured a court order in 2012 restraining Mrs. Jonathan from taking possession of the land, joining Bala Mohammed, the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) and the Attorney General of the Federation as co-defendants.
But when the defendants refused to obey the court injunction, Mrs. Yar’Adua returned to the Abuja High Court presided by Justice Peter Affren.
Turai, on behalf of her organisation (WAYEF) asked for N1.5bn as general damages, N100m as exemplary damages, N100m as aggravated damages in addition to N261m already paid for Certificate of Occupancy as well as N454m paid for building designs.
The court ruling is coming after it had adjourned the case several times to enable the plaintiff and the defendant to reach an amicable resolution of the dispute.
On Thursday, the judge set aside the purported revocation of the land from Turai, arguing that the claims by the FCT Minister that the land was revoked on an overriding public interest could not be substantiated. The court said there was no evidence before it to back the minister’s claim. Therefore, it nullified the reallocation of the land to Patience Jonathan, saying it was done in bad faith. The judge also slammed the FCT Minister for abusing his powers by allegedly revoking the land without following the law.
According to the judge, the defendants failed woefully to adduce any shred of evidence before the court to support their claims that the allocation of the land was revoked on overriding public interest.
“There is no overriding public interest in this issue,” Justice Affren said. “The allocation made to the plaintiff who is a vocational training centre was in public interest and in line with section 28 (1) of Land Use Act.”
The court however refused to grant Turai’s demand for monetary damages.
Reacting to the court ruling, the head of the legal unit of the FCT Administration, Mrs. Ima Akpongete, said the Minister would appeal ruling.
