QMB Investments, Lagos govt bicker over land ownership
In the last three months, it has been an uneasy calm for Lagos State government and QMB Investment Limited both of which are in court to determine the ownership of a parcel of land in the Lekki area of the state.
QMB Investments has gone to court, seeking to retain a piece of land that, it claims, is an extension of its plot but designated as NEPA Reservation in a layout plan attached to the land’s Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) issued by the Lagos State government.
Going to court was the company’s reaction to a contravention notice served on it and issued by the Lagos New Towns Development Authority (NTDA) dated April 23, 2013 which was followed by another notice dated May 4, 2015 and issued by the state government titled ‘Important Notice: Illegal occupation of State Land’.
Worried by these developments, the company went to a Lagos High Court and sued the NTDA (first Defendant) and the Attorney General of Lagos State (second Defendant).
A legal luminary, O.A.R. Ogunde (SAN), representing QMB Investments Limited (the Claimant), in an Originating Summons on May 7, 2015 brought pursuant to Order 3 Rule 8 (1) of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2012, is seeking answers to a few questions being asked by his client.
Part of these questions is whether, by the combined provisions of sections 1, 59, 60 and 102 of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law No. 3 2010 (as amended), the first Defendant has the legal capacity and power to issue the contravention notice dated April 23, 2015 against the Claimant.
Another is whether, by the combined provisions of sections 1, 59, 60 and 102 of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law No. 3 2010 (as amended) , the Lands Bureau in the office of the governor of Lagos State has the legal capacity and power to issue the purported contravention notice dated May 4, 2015 against the Claimant.
Assuming, but without conceding that the answer to questions 1 and 2 is in the affirmative, Ogunde also asking whether the portion of land opposite the Claimant’s plot ( Plot 8, Block 138, Lekki Peninsula Residential, Scheme 1, Lagos State) known as NEPA Reservation in Plan No. LS/D/LA 516b constituted Block 139, Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1, Lagos State in the Operative Development Plan contained in the Claimant’s Certificate of Occupancy dated June 14, 1998.
The Claimant, in a statement obtained by BusinessDay, said it was seeking from the court, among other reliefs, a declaration that, having regard to the combined provisions of sections 1, 59, 60 and 102 of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development (as amended) Law no. 3 2010, the first Defendant lacks the legal capacity and power to issue the contravention notice dated April 23, 2015 against the Claimant and, as such, the said contravention notice is invalid, illegal, null and void.
The Claimant is also seeking a declaration that ,having regard to the combined provisions of sections 1, 59, 60 and 102 of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development (as amended) Law no. 3 2010, the Lands Bureau in the office of the governor of Lagos State lacks the legal capacity and power to issue the purported contravention notice dated May 4, 2015 against the Claimant and, as such, the said contravention notice is invalid, illegal, null and void.
Hearing on the case, according to the statement has been adjourned till October 28, 2015 after the first hearing which was on June 9, 2015 at a sitting presided over by Justice D.O. Oluwayemi (Mrs).
CHUKA UROKO