The twin three-storey buildings stand out on Palm Avenue,
Mushin, Lagos. Houses 73/75 are opposite the Mushin
Local Government secretariat; they contain 14 flats, a
warehouse, offices and shops.
There is a school – New Vine International Schools –
behind the buildings.
Yesterday, the occupants were thrown out by policemen
from Zone D and Olosan Police Station in Mushin, waving
a court order.
The properties of some who were not around were flung
out; others still had theirs locked in their apartments with
no access to them.
The buildings painted in brown and cream, The Nation
learnt, has been a subject of litigation for over 60 years.
Among the occupants are a newly married couple who
moved in barely a month ago; a nursing mother whose
daughter is about a month old; a warehouse owner,
printing press and a school proprietor.
Also, the buildings house LG Electronics shop, Starcomms,
DSTV, Visafone offices, a Cocacola mini depot, a mini-mart
and the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) House
of Glory parish.
The sheriff spray-painted the court order number and
date of eviction on various parts of the building. It reads:
“ID/331/76 POSSESSION TAKEN TODAY 23/06/15 BY COURT
ORDER.”
The occupants were seen struggling to get trucks and
vehicles to move their belongings.
No fewer than 10 trucks were seen taken away the
properties.
The distraught occupants wailed and rained abuses on the
sheriff.
They said they were not informed.
New Vine International Schools’ pupils who were billed to
write examinations could not do so. Pupils, who were in
school before the eviction, were sent home.
The Proprietor, Mr Augustine Ekezie, who was informed of
the incident by the head teacher quickly sent text
messages to the pupils’ parents and guardians. He urged
them not to allow their kids to come to school, apologising
for the inconvenience.
Ekezie promised to intimate them of plans to relocate the
school.
He told The Nation that he is making arrangement with a
nearby church to take the school there.
Ekezie described the incident as unfortunate, saying: “It
was like a dream because we had our regular school
activities yesterday (Monday) and then suddenly on our
way here today (Tuesday), the Head Teacher called me
that policemen were at the school premises and wanted to
lock the premises, saying that everybody should vacate
the building because it is going to be occupied by a new
owner.
“I hurried down to find everything just as he said. Next
thing was to put a call through to the landlady whom I had
just paid rent to few days ago, her number was not
reachable and I also sent someone to her but she was
nowhere to be found. The pupils had to go back home
after I sent a text message to their parents informing them
about our next step. The next step I am taking now is to
beg a church nearby to allow me put my stuff in their
building for the moment before I could fix myself up.”
A parent, who asked not to be named, said she was
surprised when she called “to come and carry my
children; it is not fair; where do they expect them to go,
where do they expect them to carry their load to.”
The nursing mother told The Nation that her husband was
on his way, saying the whole scenario was annoying and
shocking.
“We just moved in not up to two months and we paid six
months rent. I just had my baby a month ago. Sincerely, I
don’t know what to do now,” the mother of three said.
The printer, Mr Joseph Ude said the police swooped on
them as if they were criminals.
Ude said: “You should have seen the number of police
that came here with guns and asked that everyone should
evacuate this place. They said the place, based on a court
ruling, has been awarded to a new owner. You can see
peoples’ properties scattered everywhere.
“I have a printing machine that cannot be lifted except you
use crane and there are three of them in there and they
said I have to renegotiate with the owner as the case may
be. The main problem here is how I would move my
machine and I personally feel that things ought not to be
this way, they should have given us notification either by
pasting it on the wall, or creating awareness that a new
owner is taking possession and at what time, so that we
would know what to do about it.
“The whole thing is just too embarrassing; in this
democratic era when the government is not military, these
people (policemen) just came and took the laws into their
hands, as if we are not citizens, it is not fair. Even if the
court had given an order that the new owner should come
and take over, they should have passed the information
across, no they did not, they just came to evict us.”
Another occupant, Mr Fatai Idowu, hurriedly took a flight
from Abuja when he learnt that his properties have been
thrown out on the road.
“I am a resident of this house, my landlady is Mrs
Olusoga; I have been living in this house for over 10
years. There was a similar occurrence in 2005 and the
landlady was able to settle the issue and she still
maintained the ownership; I paid N400,000. I was in Abuja
when I was informed that policemen and some boys came
to evict people here. They said they came from the court,
so the first thing I did was to put a call to the landlady, up
till now, she has not shown up.
“I called my wife who was at the shop to go to the house
only to see my things on the street. The Olusoga family
said they have handed the house over to the Oteniya
family in 2005 and they (Oteniya) authorised us with
receipts. We still continued to pay to the new owners.
“What hurts is that I had to take the next available flight
from Abuja to Lagos because I don’t know where to take
my belongings to, they are just out here on the streets,
this is very annoying because we were not duly notified. I
want to implore Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode
to intervene in this matter. We can’t just allow this lawless
action to go unpunished.”
The plaintiff, Mr Bamgboye, who said the houses are his
fathers, claimed that he went through all legal processes
before evicting the occupants.
The case, he said, had been on for years.
“As law abiding families, we went through all legal
processes and you are seeing the effects today. I don’t
trust the other families because my father bought this
land. If I had giving them notification by 2pm yesterday
the other families would have gone to court to get an
injunction preventing me from evicting the occupants.
That is why it was impossible to give them a notice. I gave
them a fair treatment by also asking the supervisors of the
church to notify their members that they are occupying
the place illegally and if the church were just, they should
have pre-informed the other occupants of the court
judgement,” he said.
Source: thenationonlineng.net/new/residents-of-14-flats-in-mushin-thrown-out-without-notice/

I feel sorry for the unfortunate victims, but I'm sure they must have been having one notice or the other to move out. I don't believe any human being is that wicked as to throw out an occupant without as much as a single day's notice

Actually, the so-called new owner admitted just as much. In the opening post, he is quoted as saying he chose not to notify the tenants because that would give the other claimants and parties in the ongoing lawsuit a chance to file an injunction with the court, something that this bum living off his father's sweat knows is perfectly within their legal rights to do. This dude needs to be heavily sanctioned by the judge in this case. I hope he gets a Contempt of Court charge and more! In fact I am going to make it my mission this week to find out developments in the case and agitate for a strong punishment meted out to him for what he put those tenants through.

Mr. BAMGBOYE is the man quoted admitting to the unlawful eviction. Mrs. OLUSOGA is the nonresponsive landlord who collected 6 months rent from the new tenant.