25-year-old land case against Presbyterian Church adjourned to 2023

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The 25-year-old land dispute against the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, PCN  by a private firm, Nasbago Limited have been adjourned to February 2023  by a High Court of Nasarawa State. The long adjournment was at the instance of the plaintiff who predicated his request on the ill health of his second witness.

The first prosecution witness, (PW1), Idris Mohammed who is a subpoenaed witness, was unable to produce the two files he undertook to produce on the next adjourned date.

Mohammed,  a civil servant with the Nasarawa State Ministry of Lands and Urban Development, said his efforts to trace the files were unfaithful.

Regardless, the plaintiff’s counsel, Jim Gortom, announced that the PW1 has concluded his evidence and should be discharged. Under cross-examination by counsel to church, Ichire Imo Okim, Mohammed said the only file he produced before the court was intact and enough to prove the case of the plaintiff.

When it was the turn of the plaintiff to call his second witness, his counsel, Gortom, said although the PW2 was in court, he could not proceed on the grounds of ill health. He consequently sought for an adjournment to enable the second witness recover and give his testimony.

His oral application for adjournment was not opposed to by counsel to the church, Okim and the matter was consequently adjourned to February 9. In a writ of summons marked NSD/K87/97,  Nasbago Limited initiated the action against the Registered Trustees of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria and Habila Gbegbe (sued as the Administration of the Estate of Etsu Nyanya Gbegbe).

At the center of the dispute is a portion of land situated at Maraba Gurku, along side the boundary between Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), South of the Mobile Police check point.