By Wale Igbintade:
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has restrained all parties in the suit pertaining to the Ikoyi Cancer Treatment Center from demolishing, destroying or tampering with the building located at No.16, Alexander Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, pending the determination of all the cases pending in court over the land.
Justice Daniel Osiagor granted the order after hearing arguments from the applicant’s counsel and human rights activist and legal luminary, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa.
Justice Osiagor also granted an order transferring the case to the High Court of Lagos State, for it to be consolidated with the other pending cases on the subject matter.
The Applicant, Kings County Property Development Company and its directors, Alhaji Hameed Kasumu and Mr. Abdul-Jamaal Kasumu, had approached the Federal High Court in Lagos on August 8, 2022, with an application for an order of injunction to restrain the Inspector-General of Police, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command and Mr. Muhammadu Wada, from arresting or detaining the directors and also from taking any steps that may jeopardise or compromise the buildings housing the Cancer Treatment Center.
The applicants also filed a subsequent application to restrain the 4th Respondent in the suit, Mr. Muhammadu Wada, from demolishing, destroying or taking over the property.
The Ikoyi Cancer Treatment Center was conceived by the company and its directors, as a multi-purpose project to address the many issues associated with the diagnosis and treatment of the much-dreaded disease, which has assumed an epidemic proportion in Nigeria.
The project is presently 90 per cent completed but for the action of officers of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning, who purported to seal up the premises, on July 17, 2019, driving away workers engaged to finish the project.
A certificate of occupancy was validly issued by the Lagos State government for the land hosting the project and all requisite approvals were duly sought and obtained for the building.
The project was meant to provide affordable health services and facilities to all Nigerians for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer-related diseases.
Dissatisfied with the action of the Lagos State government, the company had filed a case before the High Court of Lagos State immediately after which, Justice Lateefat Okunu had granted an order in August 2019, restraining Lagos State Government from taking any steps to alter the status of the property. That case is presently at trial stage.
However, some unknown persons stormed the property with the aim of demolishing it without following due process of law, prompting the company to report their nefarious activities to the police authorities, which eventually led to the filing of the case before the Federal High Court.
