In a landmark judgement that deals a blow to the land policies of Governor Peter Mbah’s administration, the Customary Court of Appeal of Enugu State has declared the Enugu State Executive Order No. 1 of 2025 inoperative and ineffective.

The judgement barred the state government from using the order to convert rural lands into urban areas to oust the jurisdiction of Customary Courts.

The judgement, unanimously delivered by Hon. Justice G. C. Nnamani, President Customary Court Appeal on Monday, May 4, 2026, effectively stops the Mbah administration from claiming vast swaths of rural land, which the government had controversially designated as “crown land” under the guise of urban renewal and development.

Other justices of appeal panel are Hon Justices E. N. Nnamani, and R. E. Ogbodo.

The Executive Order 1 of 2025, signed by Governor Mbah on January 9, 2025, had designated the entire Enugu East Local Government Area, including manifestly rural communities like Ugwuogo, Ibagwa Nike, and Agu Oja Layout, as an urban area.

Other local communities are Udenu LGA, Eha-Amufu communities in Isi-Uzu, Oji-River LGA; Agwu LGA, Agbani in Nkanu West LGA, Nsukka in Nsukka LGA.

The government’s action was widely criticised as a move to strip rural dwellers of their customary land rights and force them to litigate in expensive High Courts, effectively annexing their lands.

The ruling stemmed from Suit No. CCN/10L/2024 (Motion No: CCA/EN/74M/2025) between Engr. Ikenna Anselem Obinwanne (Applicant) and P. N. J. Okenwa (Chairman, Ex Parte Nike Uno Customary Court) and Mr. Ngwu Hyginus Tochukwu (Respondents).

The Applicant, Engr. Obinwanne, had approached the Court of Appeal seeking an order of certiorari to quash proceedings in a land dispute at the Nike Uno Customary Court. His legal team, led by Louis Onyia, argued that the Customary Court lacked jurisdiction over the land situated at “Agu Oja Layout” because the Executive Order had designated the entire Enugu East LGA as an urban area, placing it exclusively under the High Court’s jurisdiction.

In a 12-page judgement, a certified copy SaharaReporters obtained Wednesday, Justice Nnamani dismissed the application, ruling that the Executive Order cannot operate to rob the Customary Court of its territorial jurisdiction.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Nnamani who read the judgement stated that the Executive Order signed in January 2025 could not have retrospective effect on a suit that was filed on May 3, 2024. Citing the Supreme Court decision in Goldmark Nig. Ltd v Ibafon Co. Ltd (2012) 10 NWLR (Pt. 1308) 291 at 337 D-H, the court held that no law can have retrospective effect to override existing legal proceedings.

The court also took a scalpel to the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority Law No. 5 of 2009, which the Applicant relied upon. Justice Nnamani clarified that the law was enacted merely to establish an authority for development control and was not intended to be a designation of urban areas under Section 3 of the Land Use Act of 1978.

In a scathing rebuke of the state’s overreach, the court noted that the Governor’s power to designate urban areas does not extend to “manifestly rural areas” that retain their rural character.

Quoting the judgement: “A contrary position would be akin to Legislating a man into a woman without the requisite female anatomy.”

Justice Nnamani emphasized that there is a clear chasm between rural and urban areas. “Urban areas are characterized by high population density and developed infrastructure like built-up streets, macadamized, sometimes crisscrossing, thoroughfares of asphalt or tar, flyovers, public bus terminals, timed traffic lights, railway stations,” the court held. “Rural Ugwuogo with its wilds, wildernesses and forests, as well as other villages and hamlets of Enugu East Local Government Area are not and cannot be termed urban areas.”

The court ruled that the Enugu State of Nigeria Executive Order 1 of 2025, which sought to designate the entire Enugu East LGA as an urban area, cannot stand. It declared the order “defective and consequently cannot oust the jurisdiction of the Customary Court in Enugu State over suits involving lands subject of Customary Right of Occupancy.”

The judgement is a significant victory for rural communities who have been at the mercy of the state government’s aggressive land acquisition policies. The court noted that the Executive Order had thrown up a “vortex of adverse consequences” by reconfiguring the jurisdictional equilibrium of the courts.