Lawyers representing Asa Investments Ltd, the owners of Ile Arugbo compound in Ilorin, have urged the chief judge in Kwara State, Abiodun Adebara, to schedule an expedited hearing in a dispute over the property’s administration.
Buildings inside the premises were demolished in 2020 by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who claimed at the time to be enforcing the recommendation of a panel that reviewed property possessions across the state. The committee, raised by Mr Abdulrazaq months earlier in July 2019, said it couldn’t find evidence that the property was legally acquired by Asa Investments Ltd, a claim that the company promptly refuted.
Through its lawyers, A.A. Ibraheem & Co., Asa Investments, owned by the Saraki family, filed an action before the state high court in Ilorin, where a judge later ordered all parties to desist from any action until further notice.
The Abdulrazaq administration stipulated in writing that it would stay true to the court’s directive and signed an undertaking to ensure compliance until the court had decided the lawsuit. But Asa Investments lawyers later found that the government had abandoned its commitment to the court and returned to the compound with developmental work.
Shortly after it was observed that Mr Abdulrazaq had reneged on his commitment before the court, Asa Investments’ lawyers wrote the chief judge to immediately intervene and prevent the governor from further encroaching on the property.
After initially writing the judge on July 23, 2024, the lawyers also filed a motion on August 6, 2024, seeking an injunction against further action by the government on Ile Arugbo compound. Mr Adebara, however, yet to act on both the letters and the motions.
The chief judge was among the state’s judicial officers who proceeded on annual vacation this year, a move widely deemed unusual by people in Kwara legal circles. It was not immediately clear whether or not the judge would promptly take up the case upon resumption in early September.
A spokesman for Mr Abdulrazaq maintained the governor did not take any actions that violated the law. Still, he said state’s attorneys would look into any issues relating to compliance with subsisting court orders in the case.