By Nnamdi Ojiego
The last of controversies from Lagos tenancy law may not have been heard as an elderly landlord is already slugging it out with his learned tenant.

For Lagos residents, squabbles between landlords and their tenants over payment of rents and quit notices are no more news. What is news is the approach some property owners and tenants employ to settle their misunderstandings.

Some employ the services of uniformed men like soldiers, while others are believed to employ  diabolic or fetish means to achieve same objective. Most of the times, it is the battle of the wittiest, smartest or fittest.

But for Mr. Jacob Jeremiah, who has been at a loggerhead with his tenant, a legal practitioner for more than a year now, it is a matter that needs professional discipline, and as such, he has petitioned the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, over the refusal of his tenant, Mr. Abuchi Anidi, to pay his house rents.

In his petition, Mr. Jeremiah stated that he was compelled to write the NBA president when his lawyer tenant refused to vacate the premises located at Gbagada, Phase II, Lagos. Mr Anidi, he said, has been residing in his property for about two years without payment of rent.

According to him, apart from the initial rent Anidi paid which expired on January 2009, he has failed to pay subsequent rents as and when due on the said property. He said: “Because of this, I had to employ the services of a law firm to institute an action against him for recovery of the property, but the action had to be discontinued because, it was costing me too much”.

He alleged that the tenant was using  court injunctions  to perpetrate his stay on the property by filing frivolous applications in courts, and pleaded with the association to prevail on Mr Anidi to vacate his  property, which he said was his only source of livelihood.

The beleaguered landlord stated that his son who was to take up residence in the apartment in January 2010, could not, due to the failure of the lawyer to move out, even after six months notice to quit expired in December 2009. He also stated that the tenant has also failed in his payment of financial dues for the management of the estate affairs such as cleaning of the area, maintenance of roads, security and electricity bills.

When contacted, Mr. Anidi confirmed that he had been given a quit notice by his landlord but stated that he has asked for more time to be allowed to find another apartment. He admitted that he was owing some bills, including that of estate maintenance and reiterated his readiness to pay as soon as possible.

The learned gentleman explained that he did not go out of his way to create problems, as it was not in his nature to fight over what was not his, but accused his landlord of employing a number of unpleasant tactics to get him packing, stating that he had tried to maintain peace in the face of what he described as obvious irritations.

On allegations that he had been using his law background to aid his continued stay in the apartment, he stated that he has a lawyer who represents him on the case, stressing that there was no way he could have influenced the court as he was neither a judge nor did he run the courts.