A traditionalist, Ogunfolu Oyebode, has urged a customary court sitting in Ake, Abeokuta, Ogun State, to grant an order ejecting a pastor, Amos Adebayo, from an apartment he is using as a church.
Oyebode, in a tenancy suit, told the court that Adebayo had held onto the apartment located at Nutoye’s Compound, Sapon, Abeokuta, “without paying a kobo.”
The plaintiff said on Monday that he had issued the pastor a notice to vacate the apartment since June 2018 but to no avail.
“The apartment belonged to my father. I was in Lagos when the pastor began occupying the apartment and when I returned, I met him using the space for church service. He has not paid a dime for about two years. I asked him to leave the apartment but he is adamant on not leaving,” Oyebode said.
Adebayo, however, told the court that he rented the apartment from one Dare Gbadebo, whom he said he had consistently been paying N10,000 as rent annually.
The pastor added that he spent N69,000 on the repairs of the apartment, saying the amount was expected to cover the rent for some years.
“I never knew him (Oyebode) when I took possession of the apartment,” the defendant told the court.
When the plaintiff was asked whether he knew the said Gbadebo or not, he responded in the affirmative, but quickly added that there was no question on his father’s ownership of the apartment.
The president of the court, Mrs A. O. Abimbola, summoned Gbadebo to appear in court and clear the air on the apartment’s ownership.
Abimbola ordered that a hearing notice be served on Gbadebo and adjourned the matter till October 21, 2019.
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