Sea Global Energy Ltd, a company promoting Ocean City Lagos development, has filed a suit against the Lagos State government for allegedly reallocating a property that had been allocated to it by the Federal Government to the promoters of Eko Atlantic City, in a case that could test the supremacy of land titles under the Land Use Act 1978.
Mike Ozhekome, a senior advocate of Nigeria, who filed the action instituted by Ocean City Lagos at the state High Court against the governor of Lagos State and South Energyx Nigeria in 2018 (the company that was allocated the land), asked the court to declare that “the area upon which South Energyx is encroaching upon is owned by Ocean City Lagos Ltd.”
“The property, over 1,000 hectares of land running from Ahmadu Bello Way and going towards Eti-Osa, was issued to Sea Global by the Federal Government in 2003 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“He contends that the Federal Government had the power to so allocate the land under Section 49 and 51 (2) of the Land Use Act 1978, the Lands Title Vesting Act 1975, and under the Glover Settlement Act 1908 to our client.”
The Land Use Act, in Sections 49 and 51 (2), provides that any land owned by the Federal Government in any state whether developed or undeveloped before the promulgation of the Land Use Act 1978 continues to enure and reside in the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Section 1 (1) of the Lands (Title Vesting, etc.) Act also vests in the Federal Government of Nigeria title to all lands within 100 metres of the shoreline of Nigeria and any other land reclaimed from any lagoon, sea, or ocean in or bordering the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
However, the Lagos State government proceeded to reallocate the same property to South Energyx, insisting on deriving the powers to allocate land from the same Land Use Act.
Last year, the Lagos State government and South Energyx instituted a fresh action against Ocean City on the same issues, an action different from the earlier one filed against them. This move came after they had filed their defence in the earlier action.
“I discovered that there had been a fresh case instituted by the Lagos State Government through a social media platform where I saw a cause list with the next adjourned date for the May 9, 2022. It was alleged that court processes were served but there was no receipt of such,” said Adewunmi Osagie, managing director of Sea Global Energy Ltd.
According to Ozehkhome, the fundamentality of service in any case cannot be downplayed.
He said: The provisions of CAMA stipulate that service on a company is effected when there has been service on a director of the company, the secretary of the company or any other person of a managerial position and not by merely dropping it in the premises of the company.
“We immediately filed a notice of preliminary objection attacking the fresh suit as constituting an abuse of court process and that the court lacks jurisdiction and a court lacks jurisdiction, according to the celebrated case of Madukolu v Nkemdilim, when certain elements that ought to be met are not met.
“And one of these elements is that the case must have been instituted in accordance with due process of law and this case has not been so instituted because parties were not served which purpose is to enable fair hearing in any action.”
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However, by a letter to the chamber of Mike Ozekhome dated May 27, 2022, the Lagos State Government and South Energyx made known their intention to consolidate the new suit instituted by them and the previous one.
Ozekhome said: “They are aware of the similarity of both cases. We have attacked that letter in response to the Chief Judge of Lagos. The second action instituted is non-existent in the first place and cannot be taken lifelessly to another court to consolidate.
“We want the court to give its ruling first on the preliminary objection that has been filed by us. We were hoping to get the court’s ruling today the May 30, 2022 as it did not sit. However, the matter has been moved to the July 4, 2022.”
When contacted on the issue, Gbenga Omotoso, commissioner for information and strategy, said he could not speak on an issue that is already in court.
According to Osagie, the Ocean City Lagos project is a cutting-edge infrastructure, 7km to the Atlantic Ocean spanning Ahmadu Bello Way and Adetokunbo Ademola.
“The project is intended to house a lot of tourist attractions with various infrastructural facilities including an airport, a local seaport, skyscrapers, sports zones, and other attractive features and the dispute is stalling the progress of the project. However, the company decided to start developing another portion of the area measuring about 350 hectares outside the area in dispute,” she said.
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