Land dispute: FG persecuting my husband, woman cries out

By Lukman Olabiyi

A Lagos based businesswoman, Mrs Uche Ukpaka, has accused the Federal Government of using the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police to persecute her husband, Mr. Ignatus Ukpaka.

The business woman’s husband, who is currently in custody of SFU, according to Mrs Ukpaka, is suffering an underlying ailment and has been in custody of SFU since his arrest on March 8, 2022, over alleged criminal charge.

Addressing journalists, Mrs Ukpaka said the subject matter over which her husband is being persecuted by the federal government is a civil dispute pertaining to the ownership of a parcel of land in Banana Island, which a Lagos State High Court had ruled in his favour.

She alleged that the federal government, through the SFU, in an attempt to force her husband to relinquish the ownership of the property, had filed two criminal charges against Mr Ukpaka on different occasions, but the Federal High Court exonerated him.

Mrs Ukpaka said her husband is currently detained in the SFU’s custody on the pretext of another charge, making it the third time he would be charged on the same issue.

“The Federal Government brought a criminal charge over the land before the Federal High Court in 2014 against my husband, the court declared the charge illegal, unconstitutional and discharged him.

“Surprisingly, the federal government in 2018 filed another criminal charge on the same matter, again, in 2019, the court dismissed the charge, declaring it unconstitutional and unlawful and, also, discharged my husband.

“In order to settle the issue of the ownership of the land, my husband sued the federal government and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), at the Lagos High Court, and after five years of litigation between the parties, the Lagos High Court, presided over by Justice Oyekan-Abdullia, in judgment delivered in September, 2020, declared my husband and his company, owners of the same land winners, and ordered the federal government to facilitate the perfection of title documents of the land,” she said.