Yemisi Izuora
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has won a landmark case on an expanse of land at Shasha village in Lagos.
The suit, which was instituted by Mr. Jacob Oyerinde Ajibola & 24 others was decided at the Court of Appeal in Lagos.
With regards to the ownership of the land in question, the Court of Appeal in a well-considered judgement delivered on March 26, 2015 ruled in favour of FAAN.
The highlight of the judgement, as read by Justice Abimbola Osarugue Obaseki-Adejumo, JCA was the declaration that the acquisition of the land by the Federal Government was legal, and that the respondents has no locus standi to institute the action, according to a statement by Yakubu Dati, FAAN general manager corporate affairs.
The Court also held that the first respondent was not diligent in his search before concluding the sale for the land.
The respondents also failed to join the Federal Government which actually acquired, gazetted the acquisition and transferred the land to the Minister responsible for Civil Aviation, who subsequently in 1976, pursuant to section 1(2) of the Nigerian Airport Authority Decree No. 45 of 1976 transferred the said land to the appellants.
The Court also ruled that there was no dispute between the Nigerian Airports Authority (as FAAN was then known) which inherited the land in 1975 and claimants to the land in 1977. Locus standi is the right of a party to an action to be heard in litigation before a court of law or tribunal.
The Authority hereby advises all speculators and illegal occupants of the said land and other landed properties belonging to FAAN to desist from such illegal occupation forthwith and vacate such land as failure to do so would compel the Authority to apply appropriate legal actions to eject them.