Mr Ndibe Obi, younger brother of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi in last general elections is heading to court to challenge the demolition of his property in Lagos.
Counsel to Next Foods the company that owns the demolished property, Chief Emeka Okpoko, SAN, said in an interview in Awka on Thursday that the court processes have already begun.
He said: “We will make an order to be joined as parties to the case and seek leave for processes to be amended to incorporate the name of our client. We have an application seeking to set aside that judgment.
“We have a leg seeking to stay further execution. There is another leg seeking an injunction pending the hearing of the substantive matter. We also have a leg where we are saying convert this originating summons into pleading so that parties can defend the matter and for the court to hear from both sides and form an opinion”.
Going down memory lane, Okpoko said the property was purchased in 2011 and the consent of the governor of Lagos State was granted in 2013, adding that the property never had issues until the recent developments.
He added: “The land belongs to a company called Next Foods Ltd. Peter Obi’s younger brother is the majority shareholder of that company.
“The deed of assignment chronicled the history of that property right from Western Nigeria when the land registry was at Ibadan. That was when the last owners sold it. Their predecessor died leaving no will.
The majority shareholder of Next Foods Ltd, Mr. Ndibe Obi, who is the younger brother of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, has headed to the court to challenge the demolition of his property in Ikeja, Lagos.
According to Okpoko, Judgement was given in 2024 and they waited until this June 2025 to come for execution, when it was supposed to have been executed within six months.
“We have filled our own processes to show that truly speaking, we are the owners of the property.
“Nobody served us and we did not know the pendency of the matter. All we saw was this demolition.
“These are the issues we will pontificate in court and I believe and convinced that after hearing our own side of the story, I see no reason why we will not be successful.
“The case was filled in 2023 and judgement delivered in 2024 , but as I speak, I saw them flash Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, obtained in 2025. Prior to that, we found out that what they obtained was federal C of O obtained from the Federal Ministry of Works in Ikoyi Lagos.
“That was obtained in 2021 but we had our own in 2011 and governor’s consent in 2013. I don’t think federal C of O is applicable to Ikeja GRA, but I will further dip into that. I wonder whether at this point in time, there is still anything like approval in Ikeja GRA at this time everywhere in the area is built up. The C of O cannot change any transaction that has illegality or invalidity under it.”
Okpoko said the company has consistently been meeting its obligations to the Lagos State government.
“We have been making our annual returns to the Lagos State government till date. We have evidence to that and we will annex it”, he stated.