Court Orders Enugu Govt, Communities to Maintain Status Quo Over Land

An Enugu High Court, sitting in Enugu has ordered Enugu State government and Umuchigbo Iji Nike Community of Enugu East local government area to maintain 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 and six others (suing as indigenes of Umuchigbo Iji Nike Community, Enugu East local government area of Enugu State) versus the government of Enugu State, Attorney General of Enugu State and the commissioner, ministry of lands and urban development, the plaintiffs had sought for 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 vacation period.

The judge pointed out that he would not be able to deliver ruling before the expiration of the vacation, and therefore advised that the parties move to the the regular court to argue their motion for interlocutory injunction.

The plaintiffs, through their counsel, Barr. Onyema Nwokeiwu, however applied to the court to order that status quo ante bellum be maintained pending the hearing for motion for interlocutory injunction.

Entertaining arguments from counsels to 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 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 some time 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

The community also said that though the Constitution and the Land Use Law of Enugu State permits the governor to acquire any land within Enugu State for overriding public interest, the government did not follow the due procedure to acquire their land.

The suit was adjourned till September, 20, 2022.