Despite a subsisting order to reinstate Mr. Emmanuel Osita Okoli placed on the International Real Estate Federation, FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter by a High Court in Nigeria, the professional body has continued to disobey court orders.
The order being disobeyed by FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter is the one made by the High Court in Ikeja directing the realtor body to reverse its expulsion of Mr. Emmanuel Osita Okol from the its fold without granting him an opportunity to be heard, a decision which was against the spirit of constitution that establishes the body in Nigeria.
In a judgment he delivered on May 3, 2016 by Justice S.A. Onigbanjo, Mr. Emmanuel Osita Okoli, who had served variously as Secretary General of the Nigerian Chapter as well as the African Region, Vice President of the African Region and President of the African Region, got a judgement in his favour where FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter was ordered to reverse its decision taken at its General Meeting of April 6, 2011 to expel or set aside his membership from the International Real Estate Federation, FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter.
In the judgment delivered in the fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed by the plaintiff, Justice S.A. Onigbanjo ordered FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter to immediately reinstate Osita Okoli. However, a check by our correspondent on yesterday showed that about thirty six months after the judgment was delivered, FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter is yet to comply.
Also, the principal officers of FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter may have brazenly ignored the court judgment directing them to reverse its decision taken at its General Meeting of April 6, 2011 to expel or set aside his membership under the guise that there was no order preventing them from carrying out their actions and marinating status quo prior to April 6, 2011.
Despite the fact that Justice S.A. Onigbanjo had ruled in the judgment that it was mandatory for FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter to set aside its decision taken at its General Meeting of April 6, 2011, the realtor seems to have failed to take advantage of the window given by the judge to enshrine peace in the intervening period.
A member of FIABCI-Nigeria Chapter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said since the realtor body had failed to take advantage of the appeal window, they were duty-bound to execute all the elements of the judgement delivered on May 3, 2016. “The impunity of disobedience to court order is almost becoming a norm and a culture in this clime. The process of obeying all the judgments should not be stretched beyond its reasonable limits. We are only taking out time to postpone the evil day and making mockery of ourselves as professional realtors,” he added.
Please, download and read the full text of the Court Judgement here.
