The Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, has lauded the striking out of a suit filed by Winhomes Estate Global Services Limited over the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway construction.
In an interview with journalists on Sunday in Lagos, Mr Umahi said the judgment was a victory for him and others involved in the project.
“Our team of SANs did a fantastic job – a no-case submission – and the suit has been thrown away,” he said.
A Federal High Court, Lagos Division, struck out the suit for lack of jurisdiction and other reasons.
The Chief Executive Officer of Winhomes, Ifeoma Okengwu, and her company filed the suit against the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice and four others.
The plaintiffs had prayed the court to stop the Federal Ministry of Works from using a portion of land they claimed belonged to Winhomes, for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway construction.
They also asked the court to award them $250 million as damages.
The suit marked FHC/L/CS/1803/2024 was heard by Justice Akintayo Aluko.
Mr Aluko also held that Winhomes had already sold or transferred its interest in the land to third parties.
He said the plaintiffs’ claims were centred on land use and allegations of trespass which fell outside the court’s powers under Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution.
The judge also held that the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to file the case since they admitted in their documents that they had sold their interest in the land to third parties.
Mr Aluko also held that the plaintiffs failed to show any reasonable cause of action against the defendants.
Mr Umahi however said on Sunday, “The woman got a small piece of land and oversold it to our brothers. A lot of them have come to me to say: what do we do?. I said, ‘I don’t have anything to say.’ It has been handed over to the attorney-general of the federation.”
He said that there was a need to find out all those who paid $250 million for the land as claimed by Winhomes.
The minister stated, “Where is the investment of 250 million U.S. dollars? How did they pay? Where is the bank account? Where is the money? I hope those people will come together to demand their money and interest on the money they paid. There are a lot of avenues to do it. You have EFCC, you have ICPC, you have the police, you have DSS. They do fantastic jobs. They can be used to trace what the situation is.”
(NAN)