The Sheriff and Civil Process Unit, Kaduna State High Court, on Wednesday auctioned landed properties belonging to a former member of the House of Representatives, Sani Sha’aban.
The auction is in execution of a court judgment over a longstanding debt dispute with a businessman, Umar-Faruk Abdullahi.
The properties auctioned by the Court include the land and Structure behind Sha’aban’s main residence, opposite Therbow Secondary School, Zaria, covered by Certificate of Occupancy No. KD 3984 Others are land and structures on Plot No. 3 Churchill Road GRA Zaria with Certificate of Occupancy No KD 11226.
The land and structures on Tulips, MTD Junction by Queen Elizabeth Road, GRA Zaria with Certificate of Occupancy No. KD 15052. Mazari Nails Limited, along Kaduna-Kano expressway with Certificate of Occupancy No. KD 6246.
Speaking to newsmen after the auction, Abdullahi Yahaya, (SANm, counsel for the judgment creditor, said the business of the day was for the auction/sale of the properties of the judgment debtor as ordered in the judgment of Upper Sharia Court 1, Zaria.
He added that the Court confiscated five properties of the judgment debtor (four of such properties are in Zaria while one is in Kano). “So far we have auctioned the properties located in Zaria, and the remaining property in Kano would be done in due course”, Yahaya said.
The case was hinged on a loan agreement which was signed in 2018 by Sha’aban (Ɗan Buran Zazzau), and Abdullahi to secure his release in a matter involving arrest and detention in prison custody in Dubai, UAE, in the same year.
A total amount of one million dollars and ₦11.2 million was given to Sha’aban by the Judgment Creditor on loan (without interest) under strict Islamic law.
Sha’aban had already paid 290,762 dollars out of the one-million-dollar loan, and he later declined to pay the remaining balance. Part of the conditions for the loan agreement was the redemption of the loan within six months, and with the same currency as he was paid.
On Feb. 12, 2024, the Upper Sharia Court-1 sitting in GRA, Zaria ordered Sani Sha’aban, who is also a former Kaduna State gubernatorial aspirant under the APC, to repay loans of 709,238 dollars and ₦11.2 million to Umar-Faruk Abdullahi.
The court ordered the confiscation of the properties of Sha’aban which were used as collateral for the loans. Sha’aban, dissatisfied with the judgment, filed 8 grounds of appeal before the Sharia Court of Appeal, Kaduna on Feb. 13.
He also filed an application for stay of execution which was dismissed by the Upper Sharia Court GRA Zaria, and the Sharia Court of Appeal Kaduna. He then rushed again to the appellate division of the Kaduna State High Court, sitting in Kaduna, where he also lost; the appellate division of Kaduna State High Court on Sept. 29, 2025 affirmed the judgment of the lower court.
The panel, led by Justice Bilkisu Mohammed and Justice Nana-Fatima Mohammed, held that monetary judgments are generally enforceable unless an applicant proves that the judgment creditor is incapable of refunding the money if the appeal succeeds. “There is nothing before us to suggest that the respondent is impecunious and unable to refund the judgment sum should the appeal succeed”, the court ruled.
The judges added that while courts are usually reluctant to deny a successful litigant the fruits of judgment, the conditional stay was granted in the interest of justice.
The ruling effectively preserves the judgment sum while allowing enforcement measures tied to the debt recovery process to proceed under the court’s supervision.
