Justice Yusuf Halilu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has issued a stern warning to some estate developers in Abuja against flouting valid court orders or resorting to self-help in a land dispute case ongoing before his court.
The judge said that anyone who goes against or dares the authority, power and integrity of the court would have himself to blame at the end of the day.
Justice Halilu issued the warning on Thursday during the hearing of an ownership dispute suit on a plot of land known as Plot 1729, Cadastral Zone F27, Apo, Abuja.
The legal battle over the land is between AMAC Investment and Property Development Company, Commercial Property Limited and Manillah Integrated Partners on one side, and Dr Shuaib Omeiza Musari and Techs & Concretes Limited on the other side.
The two parties are laying claim and counterclaim to the ownership of the land in Apo.
At Thursday’s proceedings, Barrister Realwan Okpanachi, who stood for Dr Shuaib Omeiza Musari (1st defendant) in the matter, drew the attention of Justice Halilu to an order of interlocutory injunction issued on April 15, 2025, barring parties from taking any step on the land pending the resolution of the dispute.
The lawyer said that contrary to the order of the court, AMAC Investment and Property Development Company had gone to the land and resumed full-scale work.
He said that several buildings on the plot had reached the roofing stage in breach of the order of the court that the status quo should be maintained.
The lawyer described the action of AMAC Investment and Property Development Company, which instituted the case, as worrisome and constituting a threat to peace, adding that he had been urging his client to remain peaceful and law-abiding in the face of the provocation.
He therefore urged the judge to visit the disputed land to ascertain the alleged disobedience to his order and take necessary punitive action.
The counsel also told the judge that attempts were already being made to file contempt charges against the plaintiff with a view to committing its promoters to prison as demanded by law in the circumstances.
However, Justice Halilu, who was taken aback by the revelation, asked the lawyer to the plaintiff and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Idris Abubakar, to react to the allegations.
Abubakar, in defence of his clients, said that it was Dr Shuaib Omeiza Musari who first went to the land with media men and some thugs and marked some houses, adding that the structures would have been vandalised but for the intervention of the police.
The senior lawyer, who did not outrightly deny the allegations against his clients, rather said that an appeal had been lodged at the Court of Appeal over the issue.
In his remarks, Justice Halilu warned that an order of the court remains valid and binding on parties until set aside, adding that when a court issues an order, there must be a reason for doing so.
“The sanctity of the court, the authority and dignity of the court must be obeyed and respected by well-meaning people. It is the judiciary that is keeping this country together today.
“Talk to your clients to play according to the rules of the game. They should not take the law into their own hands. They should allow the court to determine the ownership dispute. No one should go to the subject matter of the case until it is fully resolved.
“Once the court makes an order, it must be respected, it must be obeyed. No one should do anything that will anger the authority of the court,” the judge warned.
Meanwhile, the court has fixed June 1, 2026, for the first defendant to present his own case on the ownership of the land.
