Justice Ugwueze delivered his judgement, making an order that all parties in the suit should maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and determination
An Enugu State High Court, sitting in Enugu, has ordered the state government and Umuchigbo Iji Nike community of Enugu East local government area of the state to maintain the status quo over a large expanse of land known as Equity Layout, Phase 111 in the community.
The court, which gave the ruling on Thursday, said the order would subsist pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
Justice Paul Ugwueze, who presided over the vacation court, specifically ordered all the state government and the community to refrain from entering into the said land pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
In the Suit No. E/713/2022 between Chief John Agboanike, six others (suing as indigenes of Umuchigbo Iji Nike Community, Enugu East local government area of Enugu State) and the government of Enugu State, Attorney General of Enugu State and the commissioner, and the ministry of lands and urban development, the plaintiffs asked the court to grant their motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
But the vacation court did not grant the plaintiff's motion because of the length of time the matter would take before the expiration of the vacation period.
The judge pointed out that he would not be able to deliver the ruling before the expiration of the vacation, and therefore advised that the parties move to the regular court to argue their motion for interlocutory injunction.
The plaintiffs, through their counsel, Barrister Onyema Nwokeiwu, however, applied to the court to order that status quo ante bellum be maintained pending the hearing of the motion for interlocutory injunction.
Entertaining arguments from the lawyers of both parties, Justice Ugwueze delivered his judgement, making an order that all parties in the suit should maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction
The suit, our correspondent learned, is challenging the purported acquisition of a large parcel of land belonging to Umuchigbo Iji Nike Community, Enugu East local government area of Enugu State, which the government had claimed to have compulsorily acquired sometime in 2020.
The people of the community filed the suit on the grounds that they were not properly consulted in line with the extant provisions of the law in respect to the acquisition, and that none of them received any compensation for the land.
The community also said that though the Constitution and the Land Use Law of Enugu State permit the governor to acquire any land within Enugu State for the overriding public interest, the government did not follow the due procedure in acquiring the land.
The suit was adjourned till September 20, 2022.