The Nigerian Army has requested that Professor John Ntui Ntuiabane’s lawsuit about a contested property in Apo District be dismissed by the Federal High Court in Abuja, citing the move as an abuse of court procedure and devoid of legal basis.
The lawsuit, designated FHC/ABJ/C’S/2635/2025, asks the court to interpret Nigerian citizens’ constitutional right to own property and to issue a declaration protecting the ownership rights of a deceased retired major who was allegedly given the property, which is now occupied by a retired naval chief.
Following a recent disagreement over ownership of the Apo mansion between a young Naval officer, Lt. Ahmed Yerima, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, the property dispute has garnered national attention.
The Nigerian Army, through human rights attorney Victor Giwa, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit in a preliminary objection dated March 24, 2026, claiming that it was unlawfully filed and incompetent.
The objection claims that “the suit is grossly incompetent, having been filed via originating process, highly speculative and hypothetical and academic in nature.”
Giwa further argued that the claimant was trying to have a court ruling on what he called an intellectual subject, and he urged the court to reject the case and treat it as a topic better suited for scholarly debate than for a court ruling.
Additionally, he contested the court’s authority to hear the case, arguing that there is no genuine disagreement that calls for judicial involvement.
