Court Orders Kashamu To Pay Firm N50m Daily

A Lagos State High Court has ordered Buruji Kashamu, the embattled senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, to pay a firm, Lexon Properties Limited, the sum of N50 million daily, from August 14, 2013, until he gives up possession of the premises which is the subject matter in the suit brought against him by the company. The court also ordered the embattled senator to pay 10 percent interest per annum on the judgment sum from August 14, 2013, until final liquidation of the judgment sum. Our reporter learnt that Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, who presided over the court, gave the order in a ruling delivered on January 24, 2018, in a suit number LD/765/2013, due to the failure of Kashamu to attend a scheduled case management conference (CMC) in a suit filed against him by the company. Other defendants in the suit are his company, Kasmal Properties Limited, and Kano State government. The ruling reads in part: “Pursuant to the provision of Order 23 Rule 5 of the High Court Procedure Rules 2012, I find the first defendants’ failure or refusal to attend CMC as scheduled today indicative of their being substantially unprepared to participate in the conference or their failure to participate in the conference in good faith. “Consequently, I shall enter judgment in respect of appropriate portions of the claimant’s claims against the defendants in line with the provision of the rule of the court. “Judgment in the sum of N50 million daily commencing from 14th day of August, 2013, until the defendants yield up possession of the premises, subject matter of the suit to the claimant, is hereby entered in the claimant’s favour against the defendant. “It is further ordered that interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum be payable on the judgment sum from the 14th August, 2013, until final liquidation of the judgment sum.” In its amended statement of claims filed before the court by its lawyers, Mrs. Obele Akinniranye and L. Adeoti, Lexon Properties Limited stated that it entered into a lease agreement dated March 23, 2007, with Kano State government regarding a property located at 1228 Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, for 20 years duration, commencing from April 1, 2007 and ending on March 31, 2027. The company also stated that the annual rent for the property which is six flats is N9.6 million per flat, adding that pursuant to the agreement, it had paid the Kano State government, a total sum of N48 million, covering the first five years of the lease period, which five-year term had expired on March 31, 2012. The claimant stated that in the process of discussion and negotiation of the payment of the required rent, Kashamu’s firm, Kasmal Properties Limited, served it with a purported notice of determination of the lease agreement in issue dated July 19, 2012, and gave seven days to vacate the property. The claimant further stated that on Wednesday, August 14, 2013, at about 5p.m., after close of business, the first defendant, Kashamu, stormed its office premises (which is the subject matter of lease agreement) with truck load of Nigerian policemen, thugs, bodyguards, and Man O’ War personnel, and forcefully removed its security guards from the premises and then sealed the premises and refused its officials access to the premises. According to the claimant, when he inquired from the policemen who they were, the policemen stated that they were from Bar Beach Police Station, and advised its officials to go to the police station to find out why Kashamu and his firm sealed off the premises. The claimant further averred that on August 4, 2015, its solicitors and the representative of the Kano State government, in the person of Mrs. Hafsat Sani, had a meeting to explore possible means of resolving the matter. Adding that at the said meeting, it requested that a letter of authority given by Kano State government to Kashamu’s firm to act on its behalf be revoked, and that it be re-instated back to the property in issue. It also stated that Kano State government, via a letter dated September 9, 2015, to its solicitors, stated that they could not revoke the letter of authority given to Kashamu’s firm to act as its agent, and neither could they reinstate the claimant as tenant in the said property. It said the failure of Kano State government to revoke the letter of authority given to Kashamu’s firm to act on its behalf and reinstate it as a tenant in the property necessitated the action. It further stated that both Kashamu and its firm were strangers to it and that the Kano State government never for one day wrote to notify it that it had appointed Kashamu’s firm as its agent. The claimant added that till date, both Kashamu and its firm were still in possession of the property in issue, refusing its workers access to the said possession. The claimant stated that its business had suffered a colossal loss since the day Kashamu and its firm forcefully and unlawfully took over possession of its office premises, thereby crippling its operations, as its workers could not access both their offices and the equipment trapped inside the premises due to the illegal action of the two defendants. The claimant also stated that since Kashamu and its firm sealed off its office and forcefully took over the premises, it had been losing an estimated sum of N50 million daily, and its movable and immovable properties worth N3, 433, 621, 239 trapped inside the said property were sealed and occupied by both defendants. The claimant wants the court to declare that Kashamu and his firm’s action of resorting to self-help by using thugs, Man ‘O’ War personnel to forcefully seal off and take over its office premises situated at 1228 Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, was unlawful and in total disregard of the agreement between the parties. It also wanted an order of the court directing Kashamu and its firm to remove forthwith all the men of the Nigerian police, the Man ‘O’ War personnel, and the thugs from the premises. The claimant is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining all the defendants, their agents, privies or assigns or anybody claiming through them from denying it lawful possession of the property in issue save in the manner prescribed in the lease agreement dated March 23, 2007. The claimant further seeks an order of the court directing the defendants jointly or severally to pay the sum of N50 million daily to a cumulative figure of N3, 423, 621,239 being the cost value of the assets that was inside the premises from August 14, 2013, till the date the defendants yield up possession of the said property in issue. It also wants payment of the sum of N500 million as general damage and interest on the above sum at the rate of 21 percent from August 14, 2007, until judgment sum is delivered, and thereafter at six percent.]]>