Lord's Chosen Church Dragged To Court By Landlord
The Lord’s Chosen Church, New Nyanya branch in Abuja has been dragged to court by their landlord, one Kola Sunmonu over failure to pay rent.
Mr. Kola took the case before Mararaba chief magistrate’s court after the church refused to renew its rent annually, Punch reports.
Addressing the court, Kola's lawyer, Raphael Nnabuike said the landlord had rented the property to the church at the rate of N35,000 each year. The defendant paid the initial rent of N35,000 on July 3, 2012 and it had since expired on July 3, 2013 but he refused to renew the tenancy.
He alleged that the defendant had refused to sign the tenancy agreement which the plaintiff drafted and gave the church.
He explained that part of the tenancy agreement was that the church should not erect any permanent structure on the plot but they had gone ahead to do otherwise.
Related: Lagos SG shut down the headquarters of Lord’s Chosen Church
Kola therefore prayed the court to grant him permission to take immediate possession of his plot and also recover the arrears of six months rent, which amounted to N17,500, from the defendant.
He asked the court to also help him recover N20,000, being the legal expenses he incurred from the case.
In his defense, the pastor of the church, Mr Charles Nnabuife, who had no legal representation, prayed the court to appeal to the plaintiff to give the church time to settle its rent.
He also begged the court to ask the plaintiff to sell the said plot of land to the church if he planned to sell it.
Presiding over the matter, the magistrate, Mr Habila Abundaga, asked Nnabuike, the lawyer to the landlord, to wade into the matter and resolve the dispute between the two parties before the adjourned date, July 24.
Source: Legit.ng
