By Lukman Olabiyi

A businessman, Gerald Chukwueke, and four others have urged the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal to commit Pastor Paul Adefarasin and his church, House on the Rock, to prison for allegedly disobeying a court order.
The said order restrained Adefarasin and his church from further trespassing on a land situated in Lekki area of Lagos State.
Justice Adebisi Akinlade of the State High Court, Igbosere, had on April 7, 2016, after listening to counsel for the parties, ordered that status quo be maintained by the parties pending the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
Specifically, Justice Akinlade had on March 17, 2016, granted an interim order of injunction restraining the defendants, their servants, agents or privies from demolishing or removing any structure whatsoever, be they temporary or permanent, on the claimants’ premises located at plots 15, 16, 17 and 18 located at 188 Ikate, Lekki, Lagos.
But Chukwueke and other claimants in the suit, Chinelo Chukwueke, Mrs. Martha Chukwueke, Germaine Logistics Limited and Germaine Auto Centre Limited, in a motion filed on their behalf by Moyo Onigbanjo (SAN) before the appellate court alleged that Adefarasin and his church breached the lower court’s order.
The claimants averred, in an affidavit attached to the motion, that after the order of the lower court, the defendants filed a notice of preliminary objection praying the court to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction.
They also said after Justice Akinlade heard arguments for and against the preliminary objection, the court dismissed it on February 15, 2017.
Dissatisfied with the dismissal, Adefarasin and his church appealed the ruling.
The claimants alleged that while the appeal was still pending, the defendants, in disobeying the order of the high court, applied to the state government and were granted demolition permit to remove the structures on the disputed land.
They further claimed that the defendants did not disclose to the relevant department of government that there was a pending suit in respect of the land.

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