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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Reprieve came the way of a Jos-based mining company, Elipse Industries Limited, as a High Court sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, has dismissed a suit filed against it by Ajia Global Fleet Concept Limited.
The judgment was given by Hon. Justice Kyanson Samuel Lawanson.
In the court papers, made available to newsmen in Jos, the plaintiff, Ajiya Global Fleet Concept now the Judgment Debtor, had sued Elipse Industries Limited now the Judgment Creditor for trespass, and declaration of title in respect of the disputed lands/the defendant’s mining site situate at Gidan Zuma, Sugu District, in Ganye Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
In its statement of claim, Ajiya Global Fleet Concept claimed that it acquired the lands from the original owners for valuable consideration via a sale agreement executed on February 8, 2022, and therefore sought for declaration of title and restraining order against the Defendant/Judgment Creditor, its servants, agents, privies, or any other person by whatever name from further trespassing into the plaintiff’s land.
Conversely, to the claim of the plaintiff, the defendant, Elipse Industries, averred before the Court that in 2019, it was granted consent by the land owners with which it acquired a Mineral Title from the Federal Government to mine copper and manganese at Gidan Zuma, Sugu District, in Ganye Local Government Area.
According to the Defendant/Judgment Creditor, its license was approved after it submitted the requisite supporting documents and fulfilled all the requirements for exploration and acquired all legal rights, including an exploration license from the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (MCO).
The company argued that the plaintiff/Judgment Debtor emerged from nowhere with a license in respect of the same mining site hence overlapped on the existing licence of the Defendant/Judgment Creditor and sequel to a complain to the Ministry of Mines and Steel, Cadastre Abuja, the purported licence of the Judgment Debtor was recalled, withdrawn and cancelled.
It was further the argument and submission of the Judgment Creditor that the purported Sales Agreement tendered in evidence by the Judgment Debtor was fraudulently obtained as the Land Owners did not sell their respective lands to anybody anywhere in the word.
When they testified before the Court, the land owners denied out rightly selling or contracting anybody to sell their respective lands to either the plaintiff or anybody anywhere in the world, and in fact they have never seen the plaintiff or any of its representative.
When they were shown the purported Sales Agreements they denied signing same at all.
In his judgment, Hon. Justice Kyanson Samuel Lawanson, having examined the nitty-gritty of the pleadings exchanged by the parties, rejected the purported Sales Agreement .
It was the opinion of the court that the purported sales agreement was procured out of fraud and in the whole summarily dismissed the plaintiff’s case for want of merit
