By Anthony Ochela, Abuja
The last has not been heard of the legal altercation over ownership of high-value River Park Estate Abuja, as more facts have emerged in respect of the Ministerial Committee set up by the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, to address the protracted feud.
It will be recalled that the FCT Minister had during a recent programme on Channels TV, revealed that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Sunday Ameh, wrote the petition on the River Park matter, upon which he set up the Ministerial committee on the advice of the FCT General Counsel, Salmon Dako.
However, it was learnt on good authority that Mr Ameh has been on retainership with the FCT Administration and has been working hand in hand with the General Counsel, who equally headed the Ministerial Committee.
Also, the FCT Minister had disclosed that it was the General Counsel, that earlier told him not to sign Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) for Paulo Homes Nigeria Ltd again
“We have been signing C of O to Paulo Homes, Paulo Homes, Paulo Homes, and somehow, the General Counsel came and said we don’t have anything with Paulo Homes,” Wike stated.
Nevertheless, the petition written by the Senior Advocate concerning ownership of River Park Estate, an issue before various courts of competent jurisdictions in Nigeria where the same SAN is, was not even shown to JonahCapital Nigeria Ltd and Houses for Africa Nigeria Ltd before the General Counsel reached his findings with his Committee.
Apart from representing the FCT in some matters in courts, the senior lawyer is representing the Ghanaians in some cases too, namely; Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/4223/24 Jonah Capital Nigeria Limited V Paulo Homes Limited & 3 ors;
Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/5206/24 Jonah Capital Nigeria Limited V Paulo Homes Limited & Anor; and
Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/4221/24 Jonah Capital Nigeria Limited V Dunamis Gospel Centre & 3 ors.
All the suits are bordering on ownership of River Park Estate.
Sources claim the petition was written in anticipation that the Court cases may not come out in his favour and used his relationship with the FCT Authority to try and get an outcome desirable to him and his Ghanaian clients.
On October 6, the SAN had before Justice Mohammed Zubairu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory sitting in Jikwoyi-Kurudu, announced legal appearance for the same Ghanaians laying claims to ownership of the estate, as a party seeking to be joined as defendant.
The petitioner and the FCDA General Counsel allegedly misled the FCT Minister into setting up the Ministerial Committee, in a bid to overreach the court where the above matters are pending and usurp the powers of the police to investigate crime and prevent the same by claiming to set aside albeit unlawfully police report based on a forensic report.
Some residents in the estate who have been following the ownership crisis, opined that these actions of the Minister based on a report of a committee have been stated to threaten Nigeria’s constitutional democracy if allowed to stand as no Minister talk less of a committee they set up has the power to set aside an investigation of the Nigeria Police.
Meanwhile, the ownership feud climaxed following the filing of a 26-count charge by the Nigerian Police against three Ghanaians, namely, Sam Jonah, Kojo Mensah and Victor Quianoo as well as a Nigerian lawyer, Abu Arome and a company, Mobus Nigeria Ltd, over allegations of forgery of ownership documents, corporate fraud, impersonation etc.
The matter initially slated for arraignment on July 16, 2025, before Justice Modupe-Osho Adebiyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Gwarimpa, was stalled and had to be adjourned to October 7.
However, the case was brought forward to September 25, a date the office of the Attorney General of the Federation had announced to the court that it had taken over the case from the police.
It is also worthy of note that one of the suspects of the illegal scheme in trying to take over Jonahcapital Nigeria Limited and Houses for Africa Nigeria Limited by allegedly creating 99,000,000 shares fraudulently in 2024, Victor Quainoo; also came to the FCT High Court in Jikwoyi still claiming to represent Jonahcapital on the 6th of October 2025 despite facing charges in the same FCT High Court.
The charge has been fixed for hearing on November 11.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sunday Ameh (SAN) has denied being on retainership with the FCT Authority.
In a chat with newsmen on Monday, the senior lawyer stated that
“First and foremost, I’m not under FCDA or FCTA Retainership. FCTA gave me cases to do for them, and even before they instructed me on those cases, I was already doing other matters against them, and it’s always on a case-by-case basis. But when you have a Retainership that you are on their full salary, monthly salary, or allowance, or yearly, in circumstances like that, it will be unfair to go and represent a party against them per se.
“Even in the River Park case, assuming I was having a retainer, there was not going to be any conflict of interest because I was not coming in as a Defendant. We filed to be joined (Kojo Mensah) as a Defendant in the matter and FCTA is a defendant.
“In respect of this current administration, the Minister instructed me to do three cases for FCDA and for a specific fee. My letter of instruction did not say it was a retainership. My letter of instruction did not say I cannot take cases that FCDA is involved in, because before I was given this instruction to do this matter, I already had about 20 cases I was doing against FCDA. FCDA authority is aware of it.
Despite this denial, a resident in the estate, querried what is really going on with Mr Ameh, SAN, being a lawyer to FCDA and the Ghanaians in the Riverpark case.
Though the SAN admitted writing the petition that led to the Ministers intervention for his Ghanaian clients, but what was left out is that until the Minister mentioned it on TV the other side did not know there was even a petition against them.
Also, findings showed that what the committee ended up determining are matters the petitioner (Ameh) was awaiting Court pronouncement on in the Riverpark case, still pending before the FCT High Court.
