Thursday, June 18, 2009


Sani Abacha didn't leave a will, say wife, son
From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja

FORMER Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha, did not prepare a will for his family before his death, his wife, Hajia Mariam, has told the Supreme Court.


http://odili.net/news/source/2009/jun/18/17.html

Son of the late General, Alhaji Mohammed Abacha, corroborated his mother's position that his father did not leave any will when he died on June 8, 1998.

Hajia Mariam Abacha and her son made the claim in a joint application they filed at the apex court, seeking to clarify a judgment it delivered on February 14, 2009, in which it declared that the legal title in a property situated at Plot 288, Diobu GRA, Phase 11, Port Harcourt where the late Head of State had built a mansion did not lawfully belong to him.

But in their joint application, they have approached the court claiming that they were not notified of the suit, which led to the February 13, 2009 judgment, pleading that their rights to fair hearing had been breached by a verdict which did not avail them of an opportunity to defend their rights.

The application seeks: "An order for clarification of the judgment of this court delivered on 13th February 2009; and.

"An order correcting the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on 13th February 2009 by limiting the order therein to striking out the appeal only."

The Abachas argued that their application was predicated on conflicting pronouncements from the five justices of the court.

They said: "There appear to be two sets of judgment arising from the judgment. While Justice Pius Aderemi and Francis Ogbuagu struck out the appeal and proceeded to deal with the issues for determination and subsequently dismissed the appeal, the judgments of Justices George Oguntade, M. Mohammed and S.M. Coomassie struck out the appeal."

In a 16-paragraph affidavit in support of their joint application deposed to by Mohammed, he averred that "I am the eldest surviving son of the late General Sani Abacha and one of the Administrators of his Estate," noting that his father "died without a will and both myself and my mother, Hajia Mariam Sani Abacha, are the Administrators of the Estate."

Mohammed also averred that he only got to know that the Supreme Court gave judgment against his father in respect of a property in Port Harcourt through publications in national newspapers.

He argued that being the administrators of his father's Estate, they would have defended their interests, but were not notified.

In the court's unanimous judgment from a five man panel, the Supreme Court had held that the legal title in the said property lawfully belongs to Mr. Samuel David Eke-Spiff, a retired Permanent Secretary in the Rivers State Government.

In doing so, the court held that the property was arbitrarily transferred to the former Head of State from the original owner, Eke-Spiff.

In the lead Judgment, Justice Pius Aderemi captured graphically the circumstances under which the Rivers State Military Administrator transferred illegally the property to Abacha.

He said: "The 1st Plaintiff, a retired Permanent Secretary in the Rivers State Government, was allocated a plot of land at Diobu GRA, Port Harcourt by the Government of Rivers State. The Building Lease was registered in his name as No 78 in Volume 25 of the Lands Registry in the Office at Port Harcourt. He submitted a building plan for approval, but up till now, his plan has not been approved.

"What he later discovered was that his right of occupancy was revoked without any notice to him and of course no compensation was paid to him. It eventually came to his knowledge that the same piece of land was allocated to Major General Sani Abacha, now deceased."

He dragged the Rivers State Government and the Military Administrator of the state to court arguing that the revocation of his C-of-O as well as the subsequent allocation of the land to General Sani Abacha, who as at then was the Chief of Defence Staff, was illegal and unconstitutional.

In their defence, both the Administrator and the state claimed that his C-of-O was rightly revoked because he failed to build within two years of the allocation. They also argued that the case was statute-barred, having not been commenced within three months after the revocation.

On November 18, 1999, the trial court found in favour of the plaintiff and held that the suit was not statute-barred since the notice of the revocation of the C-of-O was hidden from him.

The state did not challenge the judgment on appeal, but The Administrator/Executors of The Estate of General Sani Abacha filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt. The appeal court dismissed the appeal. Still dissatisfied, the Administrator of Abacha Estate appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in its judgment held that the Administrator of The Estate of General Abacha was not a juristic person and could therefore not file an appeal. It held that since Rivers State and the Administrator did not appeal, there was no appeal.

Nevertheless, the court held that the need to do justice required that the apex court make some pronouncement on the case.

Justice Aderemi said: "It is my quest to see that justice is manifested by this decision that I shall go ahead to treat other issues notwithstanding that I have made a pronouncement striking out the appeal as being incompetent."

After considering all the evidence, he said, "By re-allocating the same plot of land to Major General Sani Abacha after revoking the right of occupancy of the plaintiff, the Military Administrator and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice cannot be said to have satisfied the provisions of Section 28(10 and (2) of the Land Use Act which states as follows: "It shall be unlawful for the Governor to revoke a right of occupancy for overriding public interest.

"By no means can the re-allocation of that plot to Major General Sani Abacha (now deceased) satisfy the afore-said provisions."

Justice Aderemi noted that the plaintiff was not given the notice of revocation as required by law and that no compensation was paid to him.

He said: "The Military Administrator and the state have woefully failed to comply with the provisions of the aforesaid Act and consequently they transferred nothing to Major General Sani Abacha."

He held that the way and manner the land was transferred to Abacha was fraudulent.

"The fraud here is an unconscientious use of the power arising from the circumstance or condition of the parties. The Plaintiff, a former Permanent Secretary in the Rivers State Government, had since retired, and was no longer at the corridors of power. The person to whom the plot was latter re-allocated was a weighty man of authority," he said.

They should leave this one to the retired PERM SEC. AND GO AND ENJOY THE REST OF THE FATHER/HUSBAND LOOT both in Nigeria and overseas. The poor man propably has only this land or few compare to our field marshall who has it all over the places especially obodo oyibo that he may not be able to recover ever.

There is always a limit to the Power of Armed robber, either his gun stopping working, or no more bullets, or he himself die.

Life is VANITY upon VANITY.

@Topic

So?

6k na