SUBSCRIBERS comprising home owners and residents at Renaissance Homes, who were affected by the demolition exercise carried out in March 1, 2022 at Plot 96, GRA Phase 3, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, are demanding N4 billion as compensation and apology from First Trust Mortgage Bank (formerly FBN Mortgages Ltd).
They alleged that First Trust Mortgage Bank was the developer and owner of Renaissance Homes as at the time subscribers bought 12 units of four-bedroom flat each at the residential estate in February 2010.
While some of the home owners lived on the property till March 1,2022, others decided to rent out their units to tenants.
Briefing journalists in Lagos at the weekend, the Chairman of Renaissance Homes Association, Dr. George Uzonwanne, said that home owners and residents’ demand had become imperative following the hardship they have been subjected to due to the demolition of their homes, which is no fault of theirs.
Uzonwanne, who blamed the demolition on negligence on the part of First Trust Mortgage Bank because they did not carry out due diligence on the land before embarking on its development, said home owners and residents of the estate who have been rendered homeless now sleep on the streets.
Narrating their ordeal, the chairman of Renaissance Homes Association said: “On March 1,2022, Sheriffs of the Rivers State High Court under heavy Air Force security invaded the scheme known as Renaissance Homes in a bid to execute a Supreme Court judgment delivered in 2003, and ever since then, the residents have been homeless.
“Many vital documents and belongings of residents are lost because they vacated the premises under force”.
Explaining how the issue started, he said: “A Court Martial judgment had stripped Exquadron Leader Obiosa of his title to the land in question among other financial liabilities. The said judgement was registered at the Lands Registry sometime in 1999.
“The said judgement was reversed by the Court of Appeal in 2003, exonerating the Exquadron leader. Immediately he won at the Court of Appeal, he sold the said parcel of land to Vestor Properties in June 2003, and Vestor used this judgement in registering its title to the property.
“First Trust Mortgage Bank then bought from Vestor Properties in April 2008. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal judgement in January 2003. Ordinarily, you can see that First Trust’s basic due diligence would have revealed the Court of Appeal’s decision then. It raises the curiosity to want to know if the suit was pursued to the Supreme Court.
“This, First Trust failed to do. As a matter of fact, they bought from Vestor. The Supreme Court’s judgement was decided five years before Vestor sold to First Trust Mortgage Bank. Failure of First Trust to investigate the title it acquired from Vestor is negligence simplicita and this has caused untold hardship on many people today, which it offered defective title to.
“It is only reasonable and prudent for First Trust to have known if an appeal had arisen from the Court of Appeal decision. First Trust didn’t care about protecting subscribers of Renaissance Homes. As a matter of fact, First Trust did not register its interest in the property.
“Now, First Trust has put itself in a position where it has to indemnify the home owners by reason of the Deed of Assignment that it executed with the subscribers where it covenanted to offer a good title. We wrote to First Trust demanding compensation on behalf of the home owners. We also copied FBN Holdings.
“They responded through their solicitors to say that the judgement of the Supreme Court did not cover the land in question and the judgement was only registered in 2021 at the lands registry after they had bought.
“In fact, they said they have instituted a suit that will help set aside the writ of possession that was used in executing the judgement but we have not heard anything till now. The home owners have in a class action instituted a suit against First Trust in Rivers State, which First Trust has filed an interlocutory appeal against the ruling of the court that was delivered on November 1,2023 to which we don’t want to go into the substance of same. Leave was not sought before writ was served outside jurisdiction. They challenged the competence of the suit because leave was not sought and obtained before the writ was served outside jurisdiction of PortHarcourt,” Uzonwanne stated.
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