Land Dispute - Patience Loses to Turai

First Lady Patience Jonathan yesterday lost a long-running land dispute with Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua when an Abuja High Court nullified the revocation of the plot which is at the heart of the tussle.

The disputed land, a choice plot at the Central Area District of Abuja, was allocated to Turai's non-governmental organisation in 2010 when she was the first lady, but it was revoked by the FCT Administration in November 2011 and re-allocated to Mrs Jonathan's African First Ladies Peace Mission.

Turai went to court challenging the revocation which was done by Federal Capital Territory Minister Bala Mohammed, who gave 'overriding public interest' as the reason.

In the court judgement yesterday, Justice Peter Affen said the revocation "was invalid, null and void," and affirmed that the land legally belongs to Turai's Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF).

He said Turai's right of occupancy over the 1.84 hectares of land remained valid and subsisting.

"There is no regular and proper overriding public interest to warrant the purported revocation," he said. The judge said it was the dispute between Turai and Mrs Jonathan that led to the purported revocation.

"The plot belongs to WAYEF, a site for the building of the head office of the plaintiff's pet project and so the dispute does not amount to overriding public interest," he said.

Affen said that the claim by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) that the plot had earlier been allocated for the building of the African First Ladies Peace Mission was wrong.

"There is no evidence in all of the materials before me that the land had been initially granted. The minister did not rely on the alleged error while revoking the land but rather relied on evidence of overriding public interest," he said.

"The disputed land, plot no. 1347 Cadastral Zone AOO, Central Business District, Abuja, FCT, was initially allocated to Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF) while Mrs Yar'Adua was First Lady.

"The Minister of the FCT Bala Mohammed revoked the allocation for what he described as 'overriding public interest.' He then re-allocated the same land to Mrs Jonathan for the building of African First Ladies Peace Mission Headquarters on the 2nd of November, 2011.