Ex-A’Ibom military governor’s children ask court to set aside stepmother’s eviction notice

Children of Idongesit Nlanga, the late former military administrator of Akwa Ibom State, have approached a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, for the vacation of the eviction order secured by Mosunsola Nkanga, wife of their late father.

The children, Mr. UtibeAbasi Idongesit Nkanga, Mr. Etietop Nkanga, Mr Lance Okon Nkanga and Mr. Ini Idara Nkanga, joined as judgement debtors/applicants in a motion on notice filed before the court through their lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, are asking the court to set aside the warrant of possession illegally obtained by their father’s wife and reinstate them back to premises.

It was gathered that the late Nkanga, a retired Air Commodore who died of complications arising from COVID-19, had willed his property, located at Mary Slessor Close, Yakubu Gowon Way, Asokoro, Abuja, to his wife, Mosunsola and children before he died in 2020.

According to the extract of the will sighted by our correspondent, the former governor gave one wing, 3A, to his wife, Mosunsola, and the second wing, 3B to his other children to live as a family house on the condition that it should be reverted to his wife, Mosunsola, when his last son, Ini Idara, turns 30 years.

The late Nkanga, married Mosunsola in 2007 after his marriage to Joanna, his first wife who had the four children, was dissolved by a court of law.

However, Mosunsola, in 2021 dragged her stepchildren to court over their “refusal” to grant her access to her late husband’s house in Abuja.

The court, in the judgement on 17 March 2022, barred her stepchildren from restraining or interfering with Mosunsola’s right to live in or enjoy her matrimonial home, pending the issuance of a letter of administration or grant of probate over the estate.

Based on the judgement and the subsequent warrant for the possession of the premises signed by Justice O.A. Musa, Nkanga’s wife secured an enforcement team from the court and evicted her stepchildren from the house, leaving them stranded after seizing their property.

Effiong, a human rights activist, in his application, is asking the court to set aside the eviction order as the warrant used in evicting the children was an “illegal’ one.

He said the warrant of possession was issued by the FCT High Court on the 24th of March, 2022, and on the 6th of June, 2023, Mosunsola went to the court and arranged to throw the children out of the House, adding that in law, a warrant can only last for three months, but this particular warrant was used after more than one year.

“Before you can remove somebody from a property, there has to be another court order, but there was no such order, the court only granted her access, even the warrant used was an illegal one because by law a warrant can only last for three months,” he told our correspondent.

Effiong argued that the judgement in the suit No: FCT/HC/CB/168/2021, did not restrain the applicants from having possession of the subject property or living there and that it did not also extinguish the legal, possessory and equitable rights of the applicants over the subject property.

He told our correspondent that taking possession of the premises was a violation of her late husband’s will as Ini-Idara has yet to turn 30 as stated in the will.

According to him, the unlawful eviction of the applicants by the respondent is also a violation of their “fundamental human rights” to own and have interest in a property as enshrined in sections 34(a),43 and 44(1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999(as amended).

He therefore prayed the court to award the respondents, jointly and severally, the sum of N1 million as compensation for the violation of their fundamental rights to personal liberty.

Meanwhile, Nkanga’s wife, Mosunsola, when contacted to tell her side of the story, declined comment saying that the matter was already in court and would amount to sub-judice.

“I will not comment on the matter because it’s already in the court. Just leave them with their propaganda please,” she said.

Also, her lawyer, Barrister Marvin Omorogbe, Esq, when contacted, declined comments on the matter, giving the same reason.