NRC, Homeowners Disagree over Compensation for Buildings
Three owners of property at Adisa Housing Estate on Murtala Mohammed Way, Ebute Metta, Lagos have asked a Lagos High Court to prevent the federal government from demolishing their property until they were adequately compensated.
Those involved, Alhaji Moruf K. Salami, Mrs. Uyo Nwajei and Alhaja Aisha Aminu Gwadabe, have secured a court order stopping the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, China Construction & Electrical Investment Company Limited from demolishing their properties in order to build railway lines connecting Lagos to Abeokuta.
The property owners said the compensation being offered by the NRC was unacceptable to them.
They said they had no problem with the Federal Government’s plans to build the railway lines but that they were insisting that due process must be followed by the NRC in acquiring the properties, including payment of adequate and commensurate compensation.
Lawyers to the plaintiffs, A. O. Aponmade & Co had filed court action on their behalf against Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, China Construction & Electrical Investment Company Limited, Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation in Suit NO: FHC/L/CS/901/2018.
The Honourable Justice M.S. Hassan of the Federal High Court, Lagos had granted an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants from further trespassing on the land and evicting the plaintiffs in order to build railway lines connecting Lagos to Abeokuta.
In a statement, Alhaja Aisha Aminu Gwadabe said the NRC was determined to render her family and other property owners at the estate homeless despite court order of the Federal High Court, Lagos restraining the defendants.
“It all started sometime late last year when residents of Adisa Housing Estate observed that trucks were being parked by the Nigerian Railway Corporation to block the entrance to the estate. At the same time, Chinese men were also seen forcibly entering the estate to carry out mapping and surveying exercises for the construction of new railway lines from Lagos to Abeokuta,” she said.
She alleged that the plan of NRC and China Construction & Electrical Investment Company Limited was to acquire the property without complying with the provisions of the law but insist on compulsory acquisition of people’s landed property and without paying commensurate compensation.
Aisha Gwadabe also stated that the said properties were bought from federal ministry of works with adequate allocation paper and payments made to the prototype housing estate account of the federal ministry of works in 1996.
“Both the constitution and the Act establishing NRC set out the minimum requirements that must be met by this agency if it intends to take over the immovable property of anyone. There must be a notice of its intention to acquire, served on us. This would be followed by discussion on compensation and then payment,” she insisted.
Aisha Gwadabe alleged in her statement that the defendants sent a valuer without notifying the property owners. “On June 22, 2018, the valuers came with a representative of NRC and Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to hold a meeting with the landlords at which they announced that our compensations were ready and they had come to pay us and give us two weeks to vacate our properties after payment. The valuers had written the property owners to vacate the premises not more than two weeks after compensation payment.”
The plaintiffs said they had demanded to know how much compensation they would be paid, but that they were advised to sign an agreement first before being shown the cheque due to them. The plaintiffs claimed that agents of NRC have begun heavy drilling activities on the estate. “They are doing this even though they are fully aware that we have a pending case in court. They are doing this in flagrant disobedience of a subsisting order of a court of competent jurisdiction. This is impunity and we will not stand by and allow it.”
However, an official of NRC said, “The compensation is general, and there is no need to be selective on it,” adding “We know that the three plaintiffs are in court. They need to agree with us and come out of court. Just a few houses are still standing. It is a Federal Government project. We are pleading with them to collect the compensation money.”