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By Damiete Braide
The Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, has nullified the Federal Government’s acquisition of over 292 hectares of ancestral land belonging to the Onigbanko community in Irede, along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, holding that the acquisition was carried out in violation of the law.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Abdulfattah Lawal, the court held that the acquisition failed to comply with the legal requirements governing compulsory acquisition of land, including due process, service of statutory notices, payment of compensation, and acquisition for a genuine public purpose.
The court also dismissed all preliminary objections raised by Nasco Investment & Property Company Limited.
The suit, marked ID/5709/2025, was instituted by Oba Sheriff Adesina Bello, the Onigbanko of Igbanko, alongside other representatives of the Igbanko community, against Nasco Investment & Property Company Limited and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
Justice Lawal upheld the submissions of counsel to the claimants, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), that the defendants failed to establish that statutory notices of acquisition were ever served on members of the community, describing the omission as fatal to the validity of the acquisition.
According to the judge, there was no evidence before the court showing when, or whether, notices of acquisition were served on the landowners. He noted that neither the notice of acquisition nor the relevant government gazette was tendered in evidence.
The court ruled that, in the absence of proof that the statutory notices were served, the acquisition could not lawfully extinguish the community’s proprietary rights over the land.
Justice Lawal also rejected the defendants’ contention that the action was statute-barred, holding that the limitation period could not begin to run without evidence of when the claimants were notified of the acquisition.
The judge further dismissed objections challenging the claimants’ locus standi and alleging abuse of court process, holding that the defendants failed to prove that the acquisition had been validly completed in accordance with the law.
On compensation, the court found that the defendants failed to establish that the community had been compensated as required by law.
Justice Lawal held that the excision of a portion of the land could not amount to compensation and rejected the defendants’ argument that the community had waived its right to compensation, describing the alleged waiver as unsupported by credible evidence.
The court also found that although the land was initially acquired for the Nigerian Navy, it was subsequently transferred to Nasco Town Limited and later to Nasco Estate and Property Development Company for private commercial purposes.
The judge observed that documents before the court, including lease and sublease agreements, showed that the land was ultimately used to compensate Nasco rather than for the public purpose for which it had been been acquired.
He ruled that the diversion of the land to private commercial use rendered the acquisition unlawful, stressing that a private business venture does not become a public purpose merely because it may provide incidental benefits to the public.
Consequently, Justice Lawal declared the acquisition unconstitutional, illegal, null and void, set it aside, and restrained the defendants from further occupying or developing the land.
The court also awarded the claimants N300 million in damages for trespass and unlawful occupation of the land, in addition to N12 million as the cost of the action.
