Daily Post
Justice Olukayode Adeniyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has threatened to strike out a suit instituted by Zainab, daughter of former President Umar Yar Adua, against Itban Global Resources Limited, Haliru Malami, FCT Minister and FCDA over ownership of Plot 506, Zone B 09, Kado District, Abuja.
The judge issued the threat to throw out the suit following the persistent delay in the hearing at the instance of Zainab who filed the case.
At Thursday’s proceedings, where the suit was slated for definite hearing by Justice Adeniyi having granted accelerated hearing order, the court was stunned that the daughter of the former President was not in court and has not filed her defence to counterclaim on the land because of her trip out of the country.
Mathew Adebara, who stood for Zainab, created drama when he told Justice Adeniyi that his client was not in court and that one Abdullahi Bello, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Zainab’s Company, Marumza Estate Development, who was to serve as a witness had travelled out of Nigeria for months and got held up in a foreign country by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He subsequently asked the court to adjourn the matter till the time his client and the witness would be back in Nigeria.
Drama ensued when counsel to Itban Global Resources Limited, Dr Remi Peters Olatubora SAN, got up and told Justice Adeniyi that lead counsel to Zainab, Chief Sebastian Hon SAN, on phone call informed him that Zainab had travelled to England on holiday, hence, she was not available to sign documents to be used to file her defence in the counterclaim to the land.
Olatubora SAN, who stood for both Itban Global Resources Limited and its sponsor, Haliru Sa’ad Malami, as first and second defendants, rejected the reason for the adjournment of the suit, adding that it is a strange development because Sebastian Hon SAN never mentioned Abdullahi Bello’s issue with him.
Counsel to FCT Minister and FCDA, Mr Yakubu Abubakar, in a fierce objection to adjournment drew the attention of the judge to the two conflicting information from Zainab’s side and asked the court to proceed with the counterclaim to the land.
However, Justice Adeniyi after listening to counsel gave Yar Adua’s daughter till January 14, 2022, to either file all her processes in her own suit or have the suit struck out for lack of diligent prosecution and seriousness.
The judge, who expressed reservation on the undue delay being suffered by the suit, said that there is nowhere a plaintiff will be dictating to a court or hold it to ransom.
Zainab, through her company, Marumza Estate Development Company Limited, had dragged Itban Global Resources Limited, Haliru Malami, FCT Minister and FCDA before the court laying ownership claim to plot 506, Zone B 09, Kado District, Abuja, having allegedly purchased the land from FCDA through Itban Global Resources and Malami.
