The long-running legal dispute over the estate of the late Air Vice Marshal Hamza Abdullahi has taken a decisive turn, as one of the parties has dragged the administrators of the estate, Fatima Hamza Mai-Bornu and Abdullahi Hamza, before the Kano State High Court that earlier granted them letters of administration, seeking their removal as administrators.
In the suit filed with Suit No. K/244/25 between Yahaya Garba v. Fatima Hamza Mai-Bornu, Abdullahi Hamza, Sadeeq Hamza, Danjuma Zubairu, The Probate Registrar, The Deputy Chief Registrar, and Sheikh Engr. Bashir Adamu Aliyu, the plaintiff seeks the revocation of the letters of administration granted to Fatima Hamza and Abdullahi Hamza, while also requesting that they be ordered to file an account with the court and be substituted with a new set of administrators of the estate.
In the court processes sighted by Nairalaw.com, the plaintiff, Yahaya Garba, a younger brother to the late AVM Hamza Abdullahi, through his lawyer, Muhammad Maidugu Abubakar, Esq., stated that the administrators have never filed any account of their administration at the Probate Registry since their appointment in 2019. The administrators also never consulted the plaintiff and his relatives while taking any steps, and one Danjuma Zubairu allegedly administers properties without any authority.
The averments are far-reaching, including allegations of unnecessary spending of estate funds, extortionate and unexplained engagement of lawyers, negligence in handling the revocation of property in Kaduna State that led to losses for the estate, making secret profits of N10,000,000 over an estate property sold for N75,000,000, unnecessarily wasting N20,000,000 of estate funds on a so-called valuation of properties, deterioration of estate properties, disobedience to court orders, improper administration of the deceased’s estate, and general negligence in handling estate matters.
The plaintiff further stated that AVM Hamza Abdullahi owned a 17% stake in Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company Ltd., but since his death, one of the administrators, Fatima Hamza Mai-Bornu, stepped in as a director in the company on behalf of the estate and never informed the beneficiaries of any dividends or gains. Instead, a letter written by Alhaji Mubarak Dantata stated that the estate of the late AVM Hamza Abdullahi is indebted to Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company Ltd. in the sum of N226,629,804.16.
The plaintiff also alleged that the administrators derive benefits from their administration and would thus frustrate any court-ordered distribution of the estate, noting that Abdullahi Hamza allegedly took a gun to prevent the execution of a court order. He further claimed that the administrators act only in their own interest, not in the best interest of the estate, and that their conduct is detrimental to the beneficiaries, as they act preferentially.
The plaintiff averred that, as a result of the poor management of the estate by the administrators, some of the heirs have engaged in dangerous fights and physical altercations. He seeks to rely on several documents, including the letters of administration, a letter to Mr. Femi Oboro in London and the response thereto, a revocation letter and notice to quit, car distribution records, High Court orders, statements of estate accounts, the German Asset Report of the late AVM Hamza Abdullahi, a tenancy agreement, a winding-up petition, Daily Trust newspaper publications, the Federal Government gazette, a letter from Alhaji Mubarak Dantata, the 2021 financial statement of Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company Ltd., a police petition against Abdullahi Hamza, USB drive videos of fights at Lifecamp involving the police, etc.
The plaintiff prays the court to set aside the letters of administration, remove the administrators, and replace them with himself and Sadeeq Hamza, or alternatively, appoint Sheikh Engr. Bashir Adamu Aliyu as a single administrator, being a neutral party. He also prays the court to restrain Fatima Hamza Mai-Bornu and Abdullahi Hamza from parading themselves as administrators of the estate.
AVM Hamza Abdullahi was the former Military Governor of Kano State and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He died on the 3rd of January, 2019, in Frankfurt, Germany, but was buried in Nigeria.
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