The majority shareholder of Next Foods Ltd., Mr. Ndibe Obi—younger brother to the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi—has filed legal action over the demolition of his company’s property in Ikeja, Lagos.
Legal counsel to the company, Chief Emeka Okpoko, SAN, disclosed in Awka on Thursday that court proceedings have already commenced to challenge the action.
“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 judgement,” Okpoko said.
“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 a pleading so that parties can defend the matter and for the court to hear from both sides and form an opinion.”
Recounting the history of the property, Okpoko noted that it was purchased in 2011, and the Lagos State governor’s consent was granted in 2013. According to him, the property had never been in dispute until the recent developments.
“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.”
According to Okpoko, events escalated last Friday when individuals appeared at the property, claiming to execute a judgement.
“When this event unfolded last Friday, I was called upon by some people to claim execution. I spoke to the gateman there to know what they came with, and he said they did not come with anything. I said there was no way they could come without a paper, and he eventually saw a paper they came with.
“I read through the Form 41, and it was even talking about ₦5,700 owed, and the order was to recover goods and chattels. The original case was between Deborah Olonwulogbo vs. unknown persons. I asked the security man if he did any transaction of N5700, and he said he didn’t have any dealings with anybody.”
Okpoko further explained how they traced the case to the court records.
“I said we needed to trace the origin, and from the document, I could see the case number, which enabled us to go to the registry to unravel what happened. We traced the matter to a particular court and obtained the certified true copy based on the processes filed in the matter.
“When we went through it, we discovered that she, Deborah, commenced an originating summons for interpretation where there would be no controversy. Also, the process was seeking possession, not title.
“We went through the affidavit and discovered that there were squatters on the property and that she owned the property and travelled to look after her sick husband, and when she came back, she saw the squatters.”
Okpoko noted he did not blame the judge for the demolition order, given the circumstances presented in the file.
“My thinking told me that what they did was to go to a hidden place and place it. Probably after pasting it, they got someone to remove it.
“The court insisted that they serve hearing notices by the same substituted means. I will not blame the judge because he saw that the order he gave was effective.”
He pointed out irregularities in the enforcement timeline and questioned the legitimacy of the opposing party’s documents.
“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 am convinced that after hearing our side of the story, I see no reason why we will not be successful.”
He also questioned the validity of a Certificate of Occupancy reportedly obtained in 2025 by the opposing party.
“The case was filed in 2023 and judgement delivered in 2024, but as I speak, I saw them flash the Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, obtained in 2025. Prior to that, we found out that what they obtained was a 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 the governor’s consent in 2013. I don’t think a 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.”
Finally, he stressed that the company has always met its legal and tax obligations to the Lagos State government.
“We have been making our annual returns to the Lagos State government to date. We have evidence of that, and we will annex it.”
