Statutory Tenant

This Court made this point abundantly clear in Pan Asian African Co. Ltd. v. National Insurance Corporation (Nig.) Ltd. (1982) 9 S.C.1. At p.13, this Court (per Idigbe, J.S.C.) held:-
"However, in recent times, the laws relating to Controlled, protected or regulated tenancy intervened to give such a tenant (tenant at sufferance at common law) a special tenancy hence we find "statutory tenant" being defined – for example – as "a tenant who retains possession by virtue of the Rent Acts and not as being entitled to a tenancy" (See Section 49( 1) the Housing Repairs & Rents Act 1954; 2 & 3 Eliz 2, C53 England). Put simply, the statutory tenant is an occupier who, when his contractual tenancy expires, holds over and continues in possession by virtue of special statutory provisions. He has also been described as "that anomalous legal entity .... who holds the land of another contrary to the will of that other person who strongly desires to turn him out. Such a person will not ordinarily be described as a tenant".
In the Pan Asian African Co. Ltd's case supra, this Court observed at p.14 of the Report:-
"The scheme of the 1976 Rent Edict, without doubt, indicates that while the contractual tenancy of a tenant of any premises to which the Edict applies exists, that tenant is a "protected tenant" but as soon as the contractual tenancy expires, the tenant by operation of law becomes a "statutory tenant", and the landlord's right to recovery of possession of the premises occupied by the tenant becomes restricted. Under the Edict, therefore there are two classes of tenant viz: the contractual tenant and the statutory tenant; the one has an estate or property in the premises, the other has no estate whatsoever but only a right to possession of the property concerned".

I pause to observe that the scheme of the 1976 Rent Edict, without doubt, indicates that while the contractual tenancy of a tenant of any premises to which the Edict applies exists, that tenant is a "protected tenant," but as soon as the contractual tenancy expires, the tenant by operation of law becomes a 'statutory tenant'; and the landlord's right to recovery of possesion of the premises occupied by the tenant becomes restricted. Under the Edict, therefore, there are two classes of tenants viz: the contractual tenant and the statutory tenant; the one has an estate or property in the premises, the other has no estate whatsoever but only a right to possession of the property concerned."
(Italics mine)