Fourteen years after the Federal Government granted traders who lost their goods to the 2001 inferno at the New Market, Central Area, Abuja, in 2001, AUGUSTINE AMINU reports that the traders are now caught in a legal crossfire with the FCT claim their allocation of shops promised them as compensation. His report.
Hope for the actualisation of the compensation granted to over 706 traders whose shops were gutted by fire at the New Market, Central Area, Abuja, in 2001 by the Federal Capital Development Authority fourteen years on has become a mirage following the new dimension the deal is taking.
It would be recalled that the inferno which destroyed goods and shops worth billions of naira, caused the FCDA to set up a Technical Committee on Relocation of Traders. The Committee was charged to recommend palliative measures for the casualties as well as come up with a package aimed at relocating the affected traders to Wuye Market, otherwise called Wuye Ultra-Modern Market.
The affected traders were asked to pay fees ranging from N2, 000, N5,000 to N8,000 upon which they were given letters of allocation for shops/spaces in the market. The letters of allocations did not mention any further amount that the traders would pay apart from the amount stated in the letters of allocation.
The construction of the market took almost a decade, during which the traders had patiently waited, hoping that someday the magnanimity of the FCDA would be a reality, but that was not to be. The traders’ hopes were dashed on the 3rd of October 2012, when some of them went to monitor the extent of work. Before them was a signpost erected by ‘All Purpose Shelters Limited’. They gathered that the shops/spaces would soon be‘re-allocated’ to any interested person that paid between N3.5m and N4.5m to All Purpose Shelters Limited.
The traders then approached an FCT High Court for interpretations of the market. In Suit no. CV/440/12, the traders dragged the Minister of the FCT, and the FCDA to court as first and second defendants respectively. They were joined as third and fourth defendants by All Purpose Shelters Limited, and Abuja Investments and Property Development Co Ltd.
The fourth defendant, Daily Times gathered, claimed to have understanding with the FCT Minister and the FCDA to develop some markets and, in consequence thereof, an alleged agreement to build, operate and transfer was executed between All Purpose Shelters Limited and Abuja Investments and Property Development Co. Ltd.
In the Suit dated 10th December 2014, filed through their lawyer, Sepiribo Cromwell Peters Esq. of God’s People Legal Consult, Abuja, the plaintiffs prayed the court to grant them interlocutory injunction restraining the 3rd defendant from re-allocating the shops earlier allocated to them as compensation.
One of the contentious issues is on technical grounds. The 3rd defendant alleged the plaintiffs filed their suit on 19th October 2012 in respect of a cause of action which arose in 2002 against the 1st and 2nd defendants and others. The lawyer contended that the 1st and 2nd defendants are public officers in the eye of the law, thus the Suit is statute-barred against them.
She contended that in law, the case against them must be instituted within three months that the cause of action arose, and averred that the 1st and 2nd defendants were protected under the Public Officers’ Protection Act. She further said since the suit against the 1st and 2nd defendants cannot stand, the suits against the 3rd and 4th defendants cannot also hold water.
But in a counter submission, plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that it was only on 3rd October 2012 that the plaintiffs became aware of the 1st and 2nd defendants’ conduct in respect of the alleged threat to re-allocate their shops and spaces to others when their shops were about ready for occupation. He argued that the cause of action accrued on the 3rd of October 2012 when the plaintiffs went to Wuye Market and discovered the 3rd defendant’s signpost and were told of the plan to reallocate their shops and open spaces to others. He quoted the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of A.G Rivers State v. A.G Bayelsa State inter alia: ‘The protection afforded public officers under the Act does not apply in cases of recovery of land’ which he likens to his clients’ efforts to recover their shops.
Another issue is whether the FCT Minister and the FCDA, in view of the alleged Build, Operate and Transfer agreement, are liable to pay for the construction of Wuye Ultra-Modern Market. The counsel to All Purpose Shelters Ltd, Joseph Oluwarotimi Ojo, Esq., argued that the alleged BOT agreement the 3rd defendant signed with the 4th defendant is for the 3rd defendant to build, operate and recoup her expenses, then transfer to the 4th defendant.
But the plaintiffs’ counsel, relying on a submission by witness, Mrs. Mary John, argued that his clients were not aware of such agreement between the 1st and 2nd defendants, and the 3rd defendant. Mary had testified that Wuye Market, otherwise Wuye Ultra-Modern Market, was under construction when the plaintiffs got the allocation, and that ‘there was no prior agreement with the defendants that our (plaintiffs’) relocation from the aforementioned New Market, Abuja, to Wuye Market as a result of the fire incident will attract any further payment, apart from the sums specified in the allocation letters’. She submitted that ‘it is for the 3rd defendant to hold the 1st and 2nd defendants liable for the arbitrary imposed costs of the shops originally allocate to them’.
SC Peters Esq. averred that with the failure of the defendants to disagree with the evidence that the shops and spaces allocated to his clients were in numbers, having downstairs and upstairs, the claim of the 3rd defendant that the 1st and 2nd defendants did not build any market in Wuye Market is faulted. He quoted His Lordship Galadima J.S.C. in the case between Gov. of Zamfara State and Cyalange (2013) stating that, ‘The settled law is that evidence that is neither attacked nor successfully challenged is deemed to have been admitted and the court can safely rely on the evidence in the just determination of a case’.
The third argument is whether the plaintiffs met the requirements set out by the committee. The 3rd defendant’s counsel had argued that ‘from the letter of offer given by the 1st and 2nd defendants to the plaintiffs, it is pertinent that certain conditions were not carried out to fully entitle the plaintiffs to an allocation of shops/open spaces’.
SC Peters Esq. argued that the argument held no water because the relocation of the plaintiffs was a result of the fire incident at New Market, and that it was a compensation for their lost shops. With the relocation, he pointed out that, they also forfeited their shops and spaces in the burnt market. He argued that since the evidence of the plaintiffs on the issue of writing and submission of letters of acceptance has not been contradicted by the defendants, especially the 1st and 2nd defendants, the court is bound to accept it and act on it as was held in the case of Nwakonobi v. Udeorah. He also averred that a plaintiffs’ witness, Mary John, in her additional written statement on oath submitted that the original letter of acceptance was issued to them after the payment and satisfaction of other requirements of the allocation.
The 3rd and 4th defendants posited that they were mandated to build Wuye Ultra-Modern Market, and not Wuye market. The plaintiffs’ counsel here maintained that the name with which a party described a given portion of land or property is not necessary; all that is required is to make the description in evidence which will make a disputed land ascertainable. He cited the case of Peter Odili J.S.C. in Aiyeola v. Pedro (2014) where it was stated that “there is no law or practice which establishes that a plan is a sine qua non in a claim for declaration of title to land’. He also relied on the evidence of the plaintiffs’ witness that the property is located behind the Family Worship Centre and that it is fenced round and situated in Wuye District, FCT, which was also in tandem with the submission of the 3rd defendant’s witnesses.
The alleged BOT agreement between the 3rd defendant and the 4th defendant was also faulted by the plaintiffs. Their counsel, SC Peters Esq. identified that while a defendant’s witness mentioned Certificate of Occupancy No: FCT/ABU/MISC/22338, which was pleaded, what was tendered was Certificate of Occupancy No: 180w-4295z-6593s-806 eu-20. She then prayed the court not to admit it because the given evidence does not relate to Exhibit F but an untendered C of O with the number FCT/ABU/MISC/22338.
Peters further posited that even if Exhibit F replaced FCT/ABU/MISC/22338, the defendants ought to have produced the C of O No: FCT/ABU/MISC/22338 for the court to examine. She added that ‘the irrelevant Exhibit F remains worthless because the certificate of occupancy never referred to or relate to Wuye market otherwise called Wuye Ultra-Modern Market’.
Other issues which the plaintiffs identified were that there was no building approval from the 1st and 2nd defendants tendered to show that there was any development made either by the 3rd defendant or 4th defendant or both on any land on the strength of Exhibit F. S.C Peters Esq. submitted that the non-production of the document has ‘set this court on a voyage of speculation in an uncharted ocean to find whether any market, including Wuye Ultra-Modern Market, was ever built on the strength of Exhibit F’. She cited the Supreme Court judgment in a case between Mulima v. Usman (2014) to buttress her argument.
The plaintiffs’ counsel also contended that there was no memorandum of understanding mentioned on the alleged BOT agreement the 3rd defendant entered into with the 4th defendant. She also argued that the alleged BOT was not signed and registered, and that the power of attorney which was tendered was inadmissible because it was not registered by virtue of Section 15 of the Land Registration Act, Cap. 515 Laws of the Federation, Abuja 1990.
Ruling has been adjourned indefinitely.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.