Court Bars ACP, Others from Asetiya Family’s Ancestral Land in Landmark Judgment

Court Bars ACP, Others from Asetiya Family’s Ancestral Land in Landmark Judgment

By our reporter

A High Court sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has delivered a landmark judgment in favour of the Asetiya family in a protracted land dispute, restraining the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Zanna Shettima, and several other defendants from further trespass on the family’s ancestral land.

Justice Simon Aboki, who delivered the judgment last Friday, held that the disputed land located at Angwan Barugu, Maimako Tunga District in Awe Local Government Area lawfully belongs to the family of the late Baba Aduniya Asetiya.

The suit, marked NSD/LF/49/2019, was instituted by members of the Asetiya family through their representative, Rev. Abudalokaci Asetiya, who sought legal protection of their inheritance and reliefs against alleged acts of trespass and harassment by the defendants.

According to court proceedings, the defendants had earlier accused the plaintiffs of trespass and filed criminal complaints against them, which the family maintained were calculated attempts to intimidate and inconvenience them.

In his ruling, Justice Aboki upheld all the claims of the plaintiffs, affirming that Rev. Asetiya is the rightful owner of the disputed property, having inherited it from his late father, Baba Aduniya Asetiya, who lawfully acquired and possessed the land during his lifetime.

The court observed that the late Asetiya, a fisherman and farmer, lived to the age of 106 years before his death in 2008, and that the ownership rights over the land have validly passed to his heirs.

The judge also noted that the defendants failed to consistently participate in the proceedings, citing repeated absenteeisms and frequent changes of legal representation, which led to their defence being deemed abandoned.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the plaintiffs, Barrister Joseph Ejembi Agbo, described the ruling as a landmark decision that has settled several contentious issues surrounding the land.

He alleged that some persons have been using the name of Dangote Sugar as a cover to acquire lands belonging to local communities with impunity which was wrong.

According to him, “they have been using the name of Dangote Sugar to collect people’s land, claiming that compensation had been paid. We are of the view that Dangote has not paid any compensation, and the Nasarawa State Government cannot take our lands and hand it over to a private company.”

The court specifically declared that the entire disputed expanse of land at Angwan Barugu, Maimako, bounded to the east by River Nyitsa and the family’s maternal farmland, to the south by River Azara, to the west by the farmland of Alhaji Gindi Kade, and to the north by the land formerly owned by late Maimako Akwai, now cultivated by his son, Danladi, remains the lawful property of the late Baba Asetiya and is now vested in the plaintiffs.

Justice Aboki further held that the defendants’ acts of entering and appropriating parts of the land amounted to trespass.

The court awarded special damages of ₦2,057,500 in favour of the plaintiffs for losses suffered after the defendants allegedly frustrated their attempt to cultivate rice on the farmland in 2018.
The court also granted a perpetual injunction, restraining the defendants, their agents and privies from any further acts of trespass on the land.

In addition, the court awarded ₦1 million as general damages for the inconvenience suffered by the plaintiffs and ₦500,000 as cost of the action.

Efforts to obtain comments from counsel to the defence, were unsuccessful as he declined to comment on the judgment.

Court Bars ACP, Others from Asetiya Family’s Ancestral Land in Landmark Judgment