A Nigerian chartered accountant and mortgage consultant practising in the United Kingdom, Mr. Anthony Oluseyi Fasipe, has dragged his Nigerian agent before a Federal High Court over a dispute involving a property bought on his behalf.
Joined as co-defendants in the legal hostility are Patrick Okoye, Commissioner of Police in charge of Special Fraud Unit Ikoyi and the Inspector-General of Police.
Fasipe, in his statement of claim, alleged that sometime in 2004, he bought a house at 2, Oba Dosunmu Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, in preparation for his return to Nigeria from the UK, where he had lived for 18 years.
Upon renovation of the property, he finally arrived Nigeria with his family and began to live there until sometime in 2007, when he realised that the environment where the house is situated had been commercialised and became noisy, consequent upon which he decided to relocate to a more conducive residential environment.
Consequently, he placed the property for sale in order to raise funds so as to enable him acquire a new property in Ikoyi area and was introduced to Modupe Awani by Mr. Abiodun Olufowobi, a legal practitioner, while the former later introduced herself as a representative of Fuji Films in Nigeria and based on that, she would use her influence to assist the plaintiff to get a property of his choice in Ikoyi on the condition that he would sell his property at GRA, Ikeja, to her.
Thereafter the plaintiff agreed to sell the property to her for N150 million and while this transaction dragged from May 2007 to sometime in December 2007, Modupe Awani paid N25 million to and subsequently used the outstanding balance to pay for a Federal Government property situated at 20A, Adeyemo Lawson Road, Ikoyi, originally offered for sale to Architect Yakubu Noah, by the Implementation Committee of the White Paper on the commission probing the alienation of Federal Government landed property, on behalf of the plaintiff.
The said Architect Noah was allegedly desirous of selling the property to a third party where upon Modupe Awani, in pursuance of her representation, introduced it to the plaintiff and a total of N126 million was paid to the committee and Architect Noah, the sitting tenant of the property and handed over to the plaintiff, copies of payments slips duly stamped by the committee together with the original copy of the Deed of Assignment between the plaintiff and Architect Noah.
Consequently, the plaintiff handed over to Modupe Awani the title documents to his property at GRA Ikeja, having fully paid for as agreed upon by the parties.
In concluding the transaction, it was agreed that the plaintiff will take possession of the property at 20A, Adeyemi Lawson Road, Ikoyi, on 15 March, 2008, so as to enable him yield possession of the property at GRA, Ikeja, to Modupe Awani.
Shortly after, the plaintiff travelled to the U.K and came back on 14 February, 2008 to take possession of the property at Ikoyi as earlier agreed by the parties.
However, surprisingly on 6 March, 2008, the plaintiff was arrested by the police acting on the directive of the Commissioner of Police, based on a petition written by Modupe Awani, alleging that the transactions narrated above have been cancelled because the plaintiff had failed to pay commission to her lawyer, Mr. Patrick Okoye, who, she claimed, sourced for the property and that for that reason, the plaintiff had lost the Ikoyi property and should therefore return the title documents to her.
Awani also claimed to have lost interest in purchasing the plaintiff’s property.
Following his arrest, a police officer, CSP Okeanonife Innocent, seized from him, documents relating to the Ikoyi property and photocopies of cheques for the payment of the property, showing acknowledgement and since then, the defendants have been disturbing and threatening to evict him from the property.
Consequently, the plaintiff instructed his counsel, Barrister Yomi Akinlagun, to institute this action seeking the following reliefs:
•A declaration that the seizure of the documents relating to the property was illegal, null and void
•An order restraining the defendants and their agents from evicting him from the property at 20A, Adeyemi Lawson Road, Ikoyi.
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