Ango and the suspected thugs stormed the property to forcibly eject his estranged wife, causing damage to her belongings in the process.
Samuel Omlago Ango, a retired major general and suspected thugs have invaded the home of Juliet Ango, his estranged wife in the Maitama district of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Ango was the Sole Administrator of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) from 1994 to 1998.
SaharaReporters gathered that several suspected thugs on Saturday stormed the property, which is a subject of litigation in courts in the FCT and Kaduna State.
SaharaReporters learnt that despite the ongoing court cases, Ango had repeatedly served his estranged wife notices to leave the property.
Sources said on Saturday, Ango and the suspected thugs stormed the property to forcibly eject his estranged wife, causing damage to her belongings in the process.
“In the early hours of the morning (Saturday), two trucks filled with thugs arrived at the residence and jumped into the compound even though the gate was locked,” an eyewitness close to the family said.
“And they immediately went to work in different parts of the house, destroying the windows, roof, and shattering the walls. While they were doing this, some others were taking out the properties in the house.
“This type of illegality should not be allowed, especially when there is an ongoing court case.”
The source said it was not the first time the former customs boss would do something like that, accusing him of doing a similar thing in 2018.
“It took the intervention of female lawyers led by FIDA for Mrs Ango to have respite. Even though the FCT Police Command have been contacted, their intervention is less than salutary," the source added.
However, Ango who confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters on Sunday, said there was no court order restraining him from disposing his property.
"There's no court order whatsoever restraining me from disposing my property. You may wish to find out from the High Court in Abuja where whatever suit she's referring to was thrown out since June/July 2023.
"For the records, l have tried all means possible to reach her and all efforts were abortive. I have had to come personally to Abuja last weekend to have a one on one chat with her after much back and forth, only to come and she claimed she wasn't in town.”
"I even sent an SMS; still no response from her,” he added.
Ango could not provide the document which supposedly threw out the suit filed by her estranged wife.
Meanwhile, Juliet Ango told SaharaReporters that the planned meeting with Ango was rescheduled because she travelled out of Abuja to look after her sick father. She said Ango was aware of the development.
She insisted that an Abuja High Court had struck out the case pending the determination of the case in Kaduna. According to her, the court in Abuja said it was an abuse of the court process to have the same matter in different courts.
She, however, could not provide the necessary court document.
"In 2013 he left us, but before then he had given me the house. He said because of his brothers and sisters' behaviour towards me, that he wanted me to have the house in case anything happened to him.
"Since that 2013, we have been on and off court. He wrote to me that he wanted to sell the house, and I said how can you sell the house you have given me. We went to court and I filed for judiciary separation in Abuja. Later he went to Kaduna court to file for divorce. The case has been going on.
"In 2018, he came here and demolished my fence, he said the case was taking so long. We later went back to Kaduna court.
"Sometime last week he called me that he wanted to come around for us to discuss, which I told my lawyer and we fixed a date to meet and talk alongside witnesses to see how we can resolve things.
“The planned meeting was rescheduled because I travelled home to look after my 91-year-old father who was sick. I called him and told him that I would call him when I was back in Abuja. I thought that was it.
"I was asleep on Saturday morning around 6 am, the next thing I heard was as if my house was a battlefield. Over 50 men stormed my house; it was like commando warfare. Some were on the roof, some by the windows, some by the doors and some by the boy's quarters.”
"They started destroying my house, and even when the police arrived, these people refused to stop, until police threatened to you live ammunition on them. They said the house had been sold, that they wanted to transfer it to the new owner," she added.
Follow the Sahara Reporters channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFClvtH5JM6SSsP7M2Y