University students to undergo eviction over rent default

Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka has threatened to evict students in the Oba Campus of Tansian University from the institution’s premises over the management’s refusal to pay an accumulated rent arising from the use of his property.

Speaking through his lawyer, Mr. Anthony Nwankwo, in Oba on Wednesday, Ezeonwuka, the proprietor of Rojenny Games Village, urged the university’s management to abide by the letters of a Consent Judgment it entered into before Anambra State High Court, Ogidi Division.

He explained that the Consent Judgment was obtained in 2010 following a suit filed by his counsel in 2008 with reference number HID/89/ 2008.

According to him, parties in the suit are Ranent Industries Company and Rommy Ezeonwuka as plaintiffs, while Tansian University and Rev. Fr. Jombosco Akam, are defendants.

The judgment, he noted, clearly stated that the takeoff campus of Tansian University in Oba was occupying a property belonging to Ranent Industries Company, owned by Ezeonwuka.

The petitioner said the court had ruled that the institution would operate at an annual rent of N10 million for 25 years from Oct. 2010 and thereafter, the owner and the university could renew the agreement.

According to him, the management of the institution stopped paying two years ago and currently owed him more than N23 million.

“More than N23,000 has accumulated as unpaid rent because the school has been given the opportunity to pay the money in installment but it failed to do so.

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“The management claimed that there is no money to pay because the students’ population was decreasing, but we reminded them that it was an obligation under the Consent Judgment.

“It is, however, a shock to us when we learnt that the institution’s lawyer advised that they could void the judgment for some reasons, and because of that they refused to pay.

“At that point, we went to court to compel the school to pay; we also filed a motion seeking the leave of court to levy execution on that judgment to confiscate all movable and immovable assets,” he said.

The plaintiff said he wanted to evict the students to enable him recover his property before the rent would accumulate more.

“He filed a counter motion contending that the suit No. HID/89/ 2008 where the consent judgment derived from was incompetent and that the leave we are seeking is also incompetent.

“But on Nov. 22, 2018, we got judgment at an Ogidi High Court 3, presided over by Justice Arinze Akabue, which dismissed his motion,” he said.

Credit: Today.ng