Fundamental Rights Enforcement: Is Balogun Business Association superior to Federal High Court order?

The conduct and operation of some markets Association officials when there is misunderstanding among their members makes one wonder whether they are above the rule of law.

No association is recognized unless it has been fully registered, clearly stating its aims and objectives for the benefit of its members and the society at large. It is therefore surprising when some executive members of a market association such as the Incorporated Trustees of Balogun Business Association took laws into their hands and locked up the shops of one of their members, Mr. Chimezie Ezere, while claiming that they obtained a court judgment that empowered them to do so.

Challenging the illegal lock up of his shops, Ezere, through Apeiye Becon’s Chambers, Notary Public of Nigeria, wrote a petition to both the Chief Judge, High Court, Ikeja, and the Deputy Sheriff, High Court, Ikeja, Lagos, against the President of Balogun Business Association, Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, Lagos.

Seeking reliefs for Ezere, the applicant’s legal adviser, Apeiye Becon’s Chambers avers that the conduct and action of the respondent, Balogun Business Association, locking up the applicant’s two shops known as Shop B 010 and B 019 Yobe Cluster situated at Balogun Market International Center for Commerce Complex, Trade Fair Complex Badagry Expressway, Ojo, Lagos since July 22, 2016, deny the applicant’s right to own and control his properties (the shops and the goods inside) amounts to a violation of the applicant’s Constitutional right granted under Section 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The chambers also demand for claim of damages by the applicant against the respondent for the unlawful lock of the aforementioned shops.

Based on the petition written by Apeiye’s Chambers, it has been discovered that, the action of the Balogun market association president is illegal because it is not based on any court order. The statement of the facts’ shows that on the 22^nd of July 2016, a kangaroo court official came to execute a purported Court Judgment in the market; and the conduct of the so called court official warranted the applicant to demand to see the Court Order ordering the market association to seize his goods, but the court official could not show any part of such order from a court.

Ezere, the applicant being a peaceful and law abiding citizen allowed the official who claimed to come from High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja, to perform his duty, but findings later reveals that the official was from Igbosere, not Ikeja.

The two numbers of the Balogun Business Association Task Force keys used to lock up the shops are B.B.A. Task Force M417 and B.B.A. Task Force L54, which the applicant snapped their photographs and attached to the petition and marked as Exhibit A and B.

It is in this vein that Apeiye Chambers placed a motion on notice at the Federal High Court in the Lagos Juidcial Division Holden in Lagos, with suit number FHC/1/15/114A/16 on the 25^th of August 2016, asking the Court to declare the action of the respondent (Balogun Business Association president) null and void as it amounts to a violation of the applicant’s constitutional right granted under Section 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The suit further seek the honourable court to mandate the respondent to pay the sum of N10 million (Ten million naira) as damages to the applicant; and also demands an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent, its privies or any of its members acting on its behalf not to further infringe in any manner whatsoever on the applicant’s constitutional right, amongst others.

It is however appalling as investigations show that contrary to the claim of the Balogun Market Association that the sealing order of the shops is from the High Court Sheriff who came for the execution, the Sheriff denies knowledge of sealing of the shops and posited further that there is no Court order to warrant such. This makes one wonder whether the president of the Balogun Business Association is superior to the Federal High Court in the Lagos judicial division that has ordered the opening of the shops, as the shops are still locked till date. Is the president of Balogun Business Association now an authority to himself and disobeys a superior court order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? What is happening?