Cross River Court To Hear Suit On Eviction Of Cocoa Allottees June 6

After an argument on a motion for an interlocutory injunction, counsel to the defendant, Wodah Ogar, conceded that he was prepared to allow the status quo to remain as it were.

By Richard Ndoma

A High Court sitting in Effraya, Etung local government area of Cross River State, has fixed June 6, 2024, for an accelerated hearing on a matter between the state government and cocoa land allottees.

In a case with Suit No: HE/16/2024 between Mr. Charles Mgbe, 29 other allottees of 1,415 hectares of cocoa plots, and the Cross River State government, the court presided over by Justice Eno Ebri, ordered the claimants to remain in the farms pending hearing and determination of the matter before the court.

After an argument on a motion for an interlocutory injunction, counsel to the defendant, Wodah Ogar, conceded that he was prepared to allow the status quo to remain as it were.

In a brief interview with LEADERSHIP, the counsel to the claimants, Mba Ukweni (SAN), said: “We have all agreed that parties should maintain the status quo, and allow the people who are in the farm to continue working, pending hearing and determination of the matter.

“Whatever the court is to determine later with regards to ownership is a different issue, but to maintain law and order, the person that is already in possession remains in possession till the matter is determined.

“You cannot go and remove the person that is in possession, the victim, and say he should stay out pending determination of the matter, that is lawlessness.

“The advice is that their lawyer will advise them that the court has made its mind bare, that the claimants should be allowed to remain in their various cocoa farms pending hearing and determination of the matter,” Ukweni stated.

In his remarks, counsel to the defendant, Wodah Ogar, said, “Even though we filed a counter affidavit with several evidence, we came here today for hearing of the motion on notice filed by the plaintiffs’ counsel, my learned friend Mba Ukweni (SAN), but on getting here, the court decided that we should take a date for hearing.”

Prior to arguments by parties involved in the matter, the court consolidated 30 matters on similar issues and the same defendants for the hearing to commence, since the matters were similar and based on the same subject matter.