An Idemili High Court sitting in Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, has adjourned to February 23 and 24 as well as March 8, 2022, for continued hearing in a suit filed by Evangelist Benjamin Ubakaeze and his wife, Felicia, against the Registered Trustees of Diocese on the Niger and Rev. Tochukwu Okwuchukwu.

Evangelist Ubakaeze and his wife are tenants of the Diocese on the Niger, owned Iyi-Enu Mission Hospital, Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state, where they have been operating a provision store and eatery since 2014.

They were however given quit notices by their landlords who claimed to need the place for expansion project in the premises of the hospital.

Angered by the quit notice which they see as a deliberate breach of their tenancy contract with their landlord and defendant, claiming to have spent millions of naira to turn the place around from the dumpsite with rubbles and debris, Ubakaeze dragged the Registered Trustees and Management of the hospital to court.

They are claiming they had a 30-year lease agreement with the Iyi-Enu Mission Hospital management, which started running from 2014 and therefore, their tenancy agreement at the facility expires in 2044.

Apart from rejecting all the quit notices issued to him by the facility management, the Registered Trustees of the Diocese on the Niger, the couple vowed not to vacate the premises until they are paid N36 million by the trustee and the management of the hospital, as money they used in developing the facility over time.

They said that N36m demand was also for cleaning up of the place and setting up structures for the business on the premises of the hospital, as well as the profit they would have made from 2014 to 2044, if not ejected from the facility and the lease agreement allowed to run.

Evangelist Ubakaeze, mounted the witness box last Wednesday, while his lawyer, Chief C. Obiwenite Obimuanya, tendered his documents to back up his claim.

(Vanguard)

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