The Cross River State Government has been ordered not to evict the 1,415 allottees from the government-owned cocoa estate.
A State High Court sitting in Effraya, presided over by Justice Ebri Eno, issued the ruling on Friday in a suit numbered HE/16/2024, involving Mr. Charles Mgbe and other allottees.
The court granted an order of interlocutory injunction, restraining the state government from evicting the smallholder farmers pending the determination of the matter.
Following the court session, counsel to the claimants, Ntufam Mba Ukweni, SAN, stated,
“The order of injunction restrains the defendants, their agents, and servants from harassing, threatening, intimidating, or evicting the allottees.”
Ukweni emphasized that his clients had paid for the plots allocated to them under the Cross River State’s smallholders scheme for the cocoa estate.
“Nobody is to disturb the claimants in their possession and use of the land. The order is very clear.
They have been given allocations. We have agreements prepared and signed by the Attorney General of the state, and our clients paid money into the State Internal Revenue account,” he added.
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