CLAIMING ownership of a choice property, located within the precinct neighborhood of Lagos-Ikeja Government Reserved Area (GRA), No. 31B, Remi Fani-Kayode Street, G.R.A, Ikeja, Lagos, the administrators of the estate of Asiwaju Joshua Akintunde Asalu, have asked a Lagos High Court to join them in an-going suit over the property.
A tenant and occupant of the property, A. Group Properties Limited, had earlier sued one Chief Mrs. Laide Asalu over a deal on the property, where the firm had sought an order to stop sale of the disputed property to another party.
The firm had requested the court to order for a specific performance against Mrs. Asalu to conclude the sale and transfer the property to it as well as an injunction against her and all her agents, privies, or howsoever from selling, leasing, or in any way transferring her interest in the property.
In the alternative, the claimant, A. Group Properties Limited, is also asking the court to award a sum N200m against Asalu, for breach of contract of sale of the subject property by her.
The firm said it had evidenced an intention to buy the subject property from Chief Asalu, the former owner, who also expressed his willingness to sell, but directed the firm to pay rent for the first term of 2 years and thereafter parties would negotiate the purchase price, as a result of which the claimant said it carried out extensive renovation works on the property into millions of naira.
The firm said after the demise of Chief Asalu, it negotiated with the defendant to buy the subject property at the of N85m naira only, a sum it claimed Chief Mrs. Asalu, unequivocally accepted, but that after the perfection of title of the property in the vendor’s name, it was said that the price was reviewed upward from N85m to N150m.
The claimant through its solicitor said it confirmed its readiness to conclude the transaction for the purchase of the property but based on the previous offer, allegedly accepted.
Also, the claimant said it has been in undisturbed possession of the subject property since 2005 and that it carried out extensive renovation works thereon running into millions of naira based on the understanding that the former owner would sell the property to it.
In a correspondence by Messrs. Charles Ebhoman of Peace Partners & Co, on behalf Mrs. Asalu, the vendor had agreed to sell off the property.
“Having carefully perused same and after due consultations with our client and bearing in mind the peculiar nature of the said property, we are pleased to inform you that our client is favorably disposed to accepting the said payment of N85m as stipulated in your letter under reference.
“However, we hope you will reciprocate this gesture by effecting the said payment immediately without any further delay.
Similarly, we are prepared to avail you with the original building lease of the property whilst we shall agree and fine tune with your solicitors the necessary transfer documents.”
But a new dimension is already coming into the matter, as administrators of the estate, Mr. Akinpelu Asalu and Mrs. Atilola Williams (Nee Asalu), who are seeking joinder, said they became the bonafide owners of the property via Letter of Administration and Certificate of Additional Assets issued by the Probate Registry of the court on September 4th and May 18th 2009 respectively.
According to their proposed second defendant’s statement of defence, the children of late Chief Asalu, said that the first defendant, Chief Mrs. Laide Asalu, was never married to their father, adding that she only co-habited with him in his lifetime as a live-in-lover.
They said that their father did not at any time in his lifetime vest any title to the property in dispute in the first defendant r indeed anyone and neither did they as administrators at anytime vest any title to the property in dispute in Mrs. Asalu, arguing that she was never and is not the owner of the property and therefor has no claim to it.
The administrators said that any title purportedly obtained by the first defendant over the property in dispute was fraudulently and illegally obtained and that their father did not in his lifetime offer the property for sale to the claimant.
It is their case that shortly after the demise of Asiwaju Asalu, the title documents of the property in dispute mysteriously disappeared from his pile of documents, adding that all efforts to trace, locate and recover the title documents proved abortive.
In their claim, there is no valid contract between the claimant and the first defendant in respect of this suit, claiming that A. Group Properties’ suit does not disclose reasonable cause of action and should be dismissed with substantial cost.
Hearing of the matter is slated for 18th January 2013 before Justice Owolabi Dabiri of Lagos High Court, Ikeja Judicial Division.
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