Anglican Church regains property after 99 years legal battle

Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria has handed over landed property and all the assets on it popularly called the Ambrosini Property at Ebute Meta to the Cathedral Church of St. Jude after almost 100 years that it was leased out.

The handing over was attended by representatives of the church and AMCON at the venue of the property in Ebutte Meta area of Lagos on Thursday.

Speaking at the event, a Credit Officer in AMCON, Ndom Ita, said, “It is a pleasure for us to officially handover this place to the dioceses. It is a significant event.

“The official handing over of this place means that there are no more encumbrances with the property; everything on this property has been resolved.”

The Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Jude, Olufeyisanjo Ojelabi, recalled that the property which belonged to the church was given to a reputable company, Ambrosini & Co, to get a loan after which it became a big problem to the church since the year 1920.

Along the line, he added, Ambrosini also had issues and sublet it to another company, G. Cappa, which also got involved with bad loans with United Bank for Africa, and this led AMCON to take over the property.

While noting that the property was a huge and valuable one, he said it portends opportunity for the church.

Speaking on plans for the property after its recovery, he said the church had the Ambrosini recovery committee that would work and recommend what would be done with it going forward.

While appreciating AMCON for making the recovery easy, he said, “It has been the grace of God that exactly 100 years, we are able to get back our landed property.

“The litigation that would have taken us one or two years, God just removed it.” The Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos Mainland, Rev. Akinpelu Johonson, said it was good from the point of history when another generation could inherit what the previous generation had done.

He said, “Even though for many years the church did not have access to this property, by God’s grace, we now have access to it and we now appreciate the sacrifices that those who have gone before made in getting the place.

“The vision of what they leased it out for is still with us in the church and now this present generation now receives it back. We hope this generation will be able to use it to have something that the generation coming after can thank God for.”