The Nigerian Army has requested that Professor John Ntui Ntuiabane’s lawsuit about a contested property in the Apo District be dismissed by the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeing the case as an abuse of the legal system and devoid of merit.
The lawsuit, with the case number FHC/ABJ/C’S/2635/2025, asks the court to interpret Nigerian citizens’ constitutional right to own property and to declare that the property, which is currently occupied by a retired naval chief, belongs to a deceased retired major.
Following a recent disagreement over ownership of the Apo mansion between a young Naval officer, Lt. Ahmed Yerima, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, the property dispute has gained national attention.
The Nigerian Army, through human rights attorney Victor Giwa, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit in a preliminary objection dated March 24, 2026, claiming it was unlawfully filed and incompetent.
“The suit is grossly incompetent, having been filed via originating process, highly speculative and hypothetical and academic in nature,” the objection states.
Giwa further argued that the claimant was trying to have a court ruling on what he called an intellectual issue, and he urged the court to reject the case and treat it as a topic better suited for scholarly debate than for a court ruling.
Additionally, he contested the court’s authority to hear the case, arguing that the action does not reveal any actual disagreement that calls for judicial intervention.
