Court ejects Tstv from headquarters over inability to pay rent

Rahael Adakole & Co, a law firm, has taken possession of the Abuja office of Telcom Satellite Television (Tstv) due to its inability to pay its rent.

The Abuja office, which serves as the headquarters of the television company, is situated at Jahi District.

NAN reports that the property, owned by West African Business Platform Limited, was taken over on Tuesday after the Abuja high court ruled in favour of the law firm in November 2019.

The law firm through its principal, Raphael Adakole, had filed the suit in 2018 against the television company and Bright Echefu, its Abuja managing director.

The filing followed the inability of the television company to meet up with the tenancy agreement entered between the plaintiff and defendants on May 1, 2017.

The law firm asked the court to declare that the tenancy agreement between the plaintiff and defendants had lapsed by effluxion of time.

It also asked the court for an order directing the defendants to give up possession of all the five-storey building of the office complex together with its appurtenances, fixtures and fittings.

The suit also asked the court to mandate the defendants to pay N20 million as general damages to serve as a lesson from treating other unsuspecting landlords in a similar manner.

It also prayed the court for an order of N10 million against the defendants being the cost of the suit and any other order the court might deem it fit in the circumstances of the suit.

Yusuf Halilu, a justice of the high court who presided over the case said the defendant did not defend the action in spite of the receipt of the document from the court stipulating the hearing notices granted all the prayers of the plaintiff in line with the law.

“I must state here that it is the duty of the court to evaluate all evidence before it can come to a conclusion of the case; the court must treat as sacrosanct the terms of an agreement freely entered into by the parties,” he said.

“The terms of a contract between parties are clothed with some degree of sanctity and if any question should arise with regard to the contract, the terms in any document which constitute the contract are invariably the guide to its interpretation as set out by them.

“Indeed, a defendant who has no defence to a certain claim shall not be allowed to dribble and cheat a claimant out of judgment.”

Halilu said that following the consequences of the action of the defendants, judgment is hereby entered against them.