An Ilorin Magistrates’ Court, on Thursday, ordered Alhaji Abdulfatai Ajibola, the tenant occupying the guest chalet of Kwara Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to vacate the facility with immediate effect.

The court ordered the defendant to evacuate all his property and hand over possession of the chalet to the union.

Magistrate Abdulmalik Magaji, who presided over the case, also ordered the defendant to pay NUJ the sum of N40,000, being the cost of electricity incurred while in possession of the property.

The court said that the council was in order by all its earlier notices of “rent liquidation” and subsequent “termination of lease “agreement with the defendant, maintaining that they were now “tenant at will.”

NAN recalls that the council had, in November 2019, dragged Ajibola, who was the tenant managing the chalet, bar and restaurant, before the court for failing to hand over possession after the expiration of his lease agreement.

The matter had lingered on for more than one year due to the shutting of courts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the industrial action embarked upon by judiciary workers, which prevented courts from sitting.

Counsel to NUJ, Abdulraheem Ismail, had submitted before the court that all the actions, evidence and documents tendered by his client were in line with the law.

Ismail, therefore, prayed to the court to grant all the prayers of his client.

NAN