The Edo State Government has been restrained from taking over the land belonging to Oke-Oroma Community in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of the state pending the determination of motion ex parte brought before it by the community.
The people of Oke-Oroma community prayed the court to grant interim injunction to stop the defendants from “trespassing on, encroaching, bulldozing or developing” their land measuring 714.750 hectares or doing anything considered as inconsistent with their rights.
In a suit brought before an Edo State High Court, marked B/61/22 between Gaius Emokpae and five others on behalf of the people of Oke-Oroma village as Claimants/Applicants and the governor of Edo State, the Attorney General of Edo State with the Edo State Geographic Information Service as Defendants, counsel to the claimants, Kinglsey Obamogie, said that the government and its agents threatened his clients through publications in the media and other means of communication that they would destroy their crops and bulldoze their ancestral homes.
Justice Vestee Eborieme said, “I have gone through the motion and the affidavit in support and the summary of the position of the applicants which is that the defendant is set to commence the destruction of their assets. It should not be forgotten that the rationale for ex parte application is to prevent an imminent irretrievable damage or injury to the substance. Therefore, I answer in the affirmative for the issues presented for determination in favour of the applicant and I order as follows: I give an interim injunction restraining the defendants, their servants, agents from further encroaching, bulldozing the lands or destroying the applicant’s landed properties in Oke-Oroma community pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
