A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the family of the late General Sani Abacha, challenging the revocation of their late patriarch\u2019s property in the Maitama District of Abuja. The court, led by Justice Peter Lifu, ruled against the Abacha family, who had sought the return of the property and compensation amounting to N500 million.<\/p>\n
The case, which was initiated nine years ago, saw the Abacha family, represented by Mohammed Sani Abacha and his mother, Hajia Maryam Abacha, contesting the revocation of two mansions located on Osara Close in Maitama. The plaintiffs argued that the property\u2019s revocation, which occurred on January 16, 2006, was illegal and violated the 1999 Constitution and the Land Use Act.<\/p>\n
Justice Lifu’s dismissal of the suit was based on several key points. Firstly, the court found that the suit had become statute-barred, as it was filed in 2015, well beyond the legally stipulated time frame following the cause of action. The court also concluded that the plaintiffs lacked locus standi\u2014legal standing\u2014because they failed to provide the necessary documentation, such as letters of administration to the estate, proving their authority to file the case.<\/p>\n
The litigation marked the fourth unsuccessful attempt by the Abacha family to regain control of the property through legal means. Previous attempts were rejected by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Court of Appeal in Abuja, primarily on jurisdictional grounds.<\/p>\n
In their lawsuit, the Abacha family argued that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration, under the guidance of Nasir El-Rufai, had instructed them to submit the Certificate of Occupancy for re-certification between 2004 and 2005. Mohammed Sani Abacha complied with this directive, submitting the certificate to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), and received an acknowledgment. However, they claimed to have received a revocation notice dated February 3, 2006, without any explanation or compensation.<\/p>\n
The defendants in the case included the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), the President of Nigeria, and Salamed Ventures Limited. Salamed Ventures, represented by James Ogwu Onoja SAN, contended that the suit was filed too late, beyond the three-month period allowed by law. The company argued that the case had become a mere academic exercise and lacked merit, as they had legally purchased the property from the federal government for N595 million in 2011.<\/p>\n
Justice Lifu supported Salamed Ventures’ argument, agreeing that the revocation of the property was lawful due to breaches of the Right of Occupancy covenants, including unauthorized construction. Consequently, the court dismissed the Abacha family\u2019s claim and ordered them to pay Salamed Ventures N500,000 as litigation costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the family of the late General Sani Abacha, challenging the revocation of their late patriarch\u2019s property in the Maitama District of Abuja. The court, led by Justice Peter Lifu, ruled against the Abacha family, who had sought the return of the property and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-39900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39903,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39900\/revisions\/39903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}