An Octogenarian’s Quest for Justice

Tired of unending court eviction orders from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria on his property located in Lekki Phase I, Lagos, 81-year-old retired medical director, Dr. Wilson Olatunde Olabisi, has raised the alarm that suspected fraudsters are using fabricated copies of his property documents as collateral to obtain huge bank loans without his knowledge, Sunday Ehigiator reports

Dr. Wilson Olatunde Olabisi is an 81-year-old medical director who had spent most of his youthful years in public service until he retired in 1999 as a Level 17 officer. For the octogenarian, borrowing to feed or take care of his medical needs, among others, wasn’t a plot twist he could have envisaged in his retirement. No thanks to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) for freezing his pension account six months ago, even when he had never obtained a bank loan or stood as guarantor for anyone to obtain a bank loan with his property.

How it All Started

Olabisi said he bought the property located at number 5a (old Plot 18), Bashorun Okunsanya Street, inward Emeka Nweze Street, off Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, from the Lagos government in 1991 and received a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

“In 2005, a lady, who is the manager of one of First Interstate Bank branch, now Unity Bank, at Apapa came to me and revealed to me that someone seeking to obtain a N96 million loan for the importation of float-glasses presented documents of my property to them as collateral.

“She came to enquire if it was genuine because they intended to approve the loan for the individual the next day and needed my confirmation. She brought out the entire file and asked me for my C of O. Fortunately, it was with me at home. I brought it out, and they compared it, and she saw that the one that was presented to them was fabricated. I didn’t give my approval,” said the octogenarian.

“She asked me to write immediately to the headquarters that I didn’t permit anyone to use my C of O. My lawyer then wrote to them to not use my C of O for anyone, that I didn’t permit such. So they didn’t go ahead with the loan that time.

“Unknown to me, this same company, Adexson Industries Ltd, owned by one Prince Adebare Adeyemo, whom I had no affiliation with whatsoever, had actually taken loan facilities with the same bank, with a government copy of my C of O, without my consent. The first facility he took was in 2003. He was given N10 million. The second facility he took was in 2004, and he was given N44 million. Making a total of N54 million collected with a government copy of my C of O, without my knowledge.”

It was not until Adeyemo tried taking the third facility of N96 million in 2005 that the bank deemed it fit to reach out to the retired medical doctor.

“I think it was out of a guilty conscience the (bank) manager reached out to me. Though the manager didn’t inform me that he had taken two facilities earlier, it was just recently when AMCON began to serve us different court orders that I got to know all these after reading through the court papers.”

Based on the court papers, the “total money the company now owes the bank, including interest as of today, is N91 million, and this is a company or individual I have never met in my life nor have any affiliation with.”

Caution Order

Presenting to THISDAY a letter titled, ‘Re: N96 million Import Finance Facility’, dated May 4, 2005, addressed to Adexson Industries Limited, with him in copy, Olabisi explained that his lawyer on May 26, 2005, officially informed the bank that the C of O presented by the company was fake.

In the letter titled, ‘RE: Use of Fake Lagos State Certificate of occupancy No.70/70/1991T by Your Customer – Adexson Industries Limited to Raise a Loan as Collateral’, Abimbola informed the bank that Adexson Industries Ltd. was trying to defraud the bank using a fake C of O of his property.

“Even then, I was expecting the bank to inform the police that someone wants to defraud them. In fact, I wanted to go to the police myself. But my lawyer then advised that it was better we allow the bank to take it up themselves since they were the one the person was trying to defraud.”

Olabisi did not stop there. He equally went to the Lagos State Land Registry, Alausa, and placed a caution on his C of O.

According to the document presented to THISDAY, in the caution order titled ‘Caution on My Certificate of Occupancy No 70/70/1991T’, and dated June 16, 2005, Olabisi stated that the reason for the caution was that “somebody is trying to use my certificate of occupancy (fake) to collect a loan of N96 million from first Interstate Bank.”

The caution was approved and certified by the land registry. Olabisi said he likewise “submitted a photocopy of the letter sent to me at Alausa, and they placed caution on the C of O. Since that time, there has been no issue on the property until recently when AMCON surfaced.”

Issues with AMCON

Narrating their ordeal with AMCON, one of the legal occupants of the property, Mrs. Helen Emore, disclosed the crisis started on August 27, 2020.

“I was just upstairs getting ready to go out when they came into the compound and said we owed money. They got an enrollment order from AMCON for N13 million, taken by a company called TAGAF and Son’s Global from UBA,” said Emore. “They sealed the place and then told us to move all our cars out, that AMCON had taken over the property. Unfortunately, the landlord wasn’t at home that day, so we all went out because we didn’t know what it was about.

Corroborating that the octogenarian is the property owner, Emore explained that Olabisi “built the first one at the back, just one small storey building at the boy’s quarters that cuts across the two wings” of the house.

“Then he got a developer, Godspower Omozusi, to develop the four-terrace duplexes. Then the developer sold the long lease to people. So I bought it from one of the people that bought it. Dr. Olabisi has sold his interest in three of the units up until 2036 because it was a 30-year lease. When he did that, he got one unit, which is the one at the back, and leased out the others. The C of O of the land is in his name.

“I moved here in 2011. That was when I bought my own interest. Since then, there has been no incident of such as today witnessed. So when this thing happened, Dr. Olabisi said he didn’t do business with anybody, neither did he guarantee anyone nor give his C of O to anyone.”

Following the latest incident, Emore further stated that “we got a lawyer, and the lawyer went to court and discovered that all the documents that were filed were not genuine.” The C of O filed by the suspected fraudster was a government copy “that was supposed” to be in the care of the Lagos government.

“So we went to court, and we vacated that order after two months. So we went to see AMCON and asked them to check through their system if there were other loans so that we could deal with them. But because we went to court with them, they vacated the order, and we came home. The order was vacated in the first week of October 2020,” she said.

The Adexson’s Case

Emore continued that in March 2021, “AMCON came with another group with a lawyer from Unity Bank, formerly known as First Interstate Bank. They said their customer, Adexson Industries, Ltd, owned by one Prince Adebare Adeyemo, used this property as collateral,” and they had a court order to seal it off.

The company owed the bank N91 million, and just like TAGAF and Son’s Global, the C of O they filed was also a government copy that ought to be in the care of the Lagos government.

The document revealed that the loan was taken in 2003 and 2004, added Emore. “First, they took N10 million in 2003, and also took N44 million in 2004, making it N54 million. I guess plus interest since that long, the total amount they are to pay back now has risen to N91 million,” she pointed out.

“Mind you, in these two cases before AMCON came to enforce a court order, the owner of the property, Dr. Olabisi, wasn’t invited to any court sitting to give his own account, yet his name was written on the order as part of the witnesses.”

Olabisi told THISDAY that at no point was he invited to appear in court by AMCON before securing a court injunction to take possession of his property and freeze his pension accounts.

The Adexson case with AMCON was, however, taken to court and won by the octogenarian. But that is not the end of the matter. Olabisi further revealed to THISDAY that he would be suing AMCON for harassment, false accusations, and negligence.

“If the AMCON lawyers had taken pains to visit the Ministry of Lands, they would see that I had placed a caution on the C of O since 2005,” the octogenarian argued. “Therefore, no reasonable bank will grant anyone a N700 million loan in 2007 without taking possession of the original C of O or registering their interest with the Ministry of Lands.”

School XP Interactive Limited’s Case

On June 25, 2021, it was yet another case of AMCON enforcing a court order to take over the same property. But this time, it was another case involving a N700 million loan obtained from Oceanic Bank (now Eco Bank) in 2007 by a company called School XP Interactive Limited.

As of the time of filing this report, it was unclear if the company also used Olabisi’s property to secure the loan now valued at N4.7 billion (plus interest) in 2021, as his lawyer had yet to obtain the full documents about the case.

However, a court order delivered by AMCON to Olabisi on June 25, 2021, seen by THISDAY, revealed that the octogenarian’s name was not on the list of defendants in the case, despite enforcing the court order on the same date by sealing off the property.

Narrating the incident as it transpired on June 25, Olabisi said AMCON officials came with about 20 policemen to enforce the court order without any prior invitation to court.

“They entered the house, went all over the place, looked at everything and then wrote on the wall, ‘Possession Taken by Order of the Court’. Concerning court, I was not even invited to any court. I was not asked any questions. I told the officials that I was not aware of such a court case over my property. But they insisted on sealing the house. They went all around the house, writing takeover inscriptions on every part of the house. They were here for over an hour.”

Developer’s Angle

Olabisi engaged a developer, Mr Godspower Omozuzi. Omozuzi, the octogenarian revealed, began to develop the property in 2006 and completed it in 2008.

“At a time in 2006, when he was about to begin developing the property, Godspower needed money for the project, and so he approached a bank for a loan. He presented my copy of the C of O, which I willingly gave to him to the bank.

“But he wasn’t granted the loan. The bank told him they couldn’t grant him a loan on a third party property, so he had to present his own C of O and returned mine to me,” Olabisi stated.

THISDAY contacted Omozuzi, and he corroborated the octogenarian’s story.

“I wanted to access a facility from the defunct Oceanic Bank as of then with the C of O. But they told me I can’t use a third party C of O. I had to use the C of O of my property at Lagoon Homes,” said Omozuzi. “At another time, around 2008, when I wanted to obtain consent at Alausa, for clients that wanted to occupy the property, it was revealed to me at Lagos land registry, Alausa, that Dr. Olabisi had placed an embargo (Caution) on the property,” explained the developer. “So, they asked us at the registry to go and obtain consent from him, which we did, before they granted us the consent. So I am still baffled how these banks were able to give these people loans without going to Alausa to verify the document or even inform Dr. Olabisi.”

Web of Conspiracy

Omozusi’s testimony begs the question: how were other parties able to access a loan with a third party C of O?

To Olabisi’s mind, a likely web of fraud connects those using his property to collect loans, the Lagos State Land Registry officials, and the banks.

“This is because, first, the copy of my C of O attached to all the court orders I have seen were obtained from the government. It’s the government’s copy which is supposed to remain with the government, and not my personal copy,” he reasoned. “Also, a bank is supposed to verify any document before accepting to validate it for a loan transaction. On all these loans you are seeing, the bank never reached out to me to get my consent before giving the loans to the individuals or companies.”

He pointed out that “this is not to mention that they granted a loan to these fraudulent individuals” based on a third party C of O.

“The same third party C of O my developer also tried using in 2006 and wasn’t granted a loan. It’s an irony; definitely, this is a web of fraudulent people in the land registry and the banks. Because, how were they able to get a government copy of my property?

“Recently someone told me that in 2004, Governor Fashola made some amendments to the land use act, that during that time, some Alausa boys were selling C of O’s up and down, this must have been one of such cases.”

Demands

“I challenge AMCON to go and make an inquest on my C of O at Alausa before coming here to enforce any order. They will definitely feel ashamed of all their actions if they take this step,” said Olabisi. “If they had done this, they wouldn’t have had any reason to go to court to secure a judgement against me in the first place, talk more of doing so behind me.”

He urged the banks involved to do the same.

“They would have seen the caution I placed on the property in 2005 if they had bothered to investigate it before pushing out monies to these fraudulent individuals. The banks must learn that you can’t cut a man’s hair without his knowledge. They have the sole responsibility to have reached out to me at the very point these persons tried obtaining these loans with a fabricated C of O of my property before granting the loans.

“This is because it was clear from the onset that whoever the individuals were, they were using a third party C of O as collateral for the loan. Why couldn’t they reach me if their hands were also clean?”

Lamentation

The octogenarian acknowledged the trauma associated with the loan saga and the possible collusion of some banks and AMCON’s lack of thoroughness.

“Imagine a man of my age, at 81, having sleepless nights and apprehension. They probably thought I was dead, but thank God he has sustained my life till this day,” Olabisi stated. “I have lost face before meaningful members of the public because it is a disgrace. People all around see all the inscriptions written on the wall, and they look down on me as a debtor, whereas I have never in my life borrowed money from any bank. They have also frozen my pension account for six months now. I now live on borrowing money from friends and family to survive. This is totally wrong and a big slap on my personality. Despite all my sacrifices to my country, look at what I am getting back.”

AMCON’s Reaction

When contacted by THISDAY for reaction, AMCON’s Head of Corporate Communications, Jude Nwauzor, noted that the corporation traced Olabisi’s property to School XP Interactive Limited, which is indebted to AMCON. He did not confirm if AMCON also traced the property to Adexson Industries Ltd, and TAGAF, and Son’s Global.

When asked if AMCON carried out any further investigation on the property at the land registry, he said, “Our lawyers carried out due diligence, and confirmation from the land registry showed that the property is linked to the obligor. Therefore, rather than resorting to the newsrooms, Dr. Olabisi is encouraged to prove beyond reasonable doubt in the court that the property in question is not affiliated with the company, and so has no business in the portfolio of AMCON.”

When asked if AMCON truly secured an order against the octogenarian without inviting him to testify before the court, Nwauzor claimed Olabisi’s lawyers were in the best position to deal with that aspect.

He further noted that AMCON’s obligors had perfected the act of employing and deploying all manners of strategies to delay or outright avoid repayment of debts to the corporation, a reason AMCON has over 3,000 court cases.

“From the trend that we know, a good number of them always run to the newsrooms to help them to mobilise public sympathy but unfortunately, the courts do not consider sympathy when looking at the cases, they look at the hardcore evidence that is submitted by both parties.”

Inside Lagos State Land Registry

On July 15, 2021, THISDAY inquired of Olabisi’s C of O with the title number 70/70/1991T. It was told revealed that it had no loan facility registered against it.

The certified true copy of the C of O, obtained from the registry on August 12, showed no registered encumbrance on the property. But there was a registered caution placed by Olabisi on June 21, 2005.

It also revealed that the property, located at Plot 18, Block 15, Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1 (old number), was 1186.80 square meters and was registered by Olabisi on March 14, 1991. It also stated that the property was used as a residential abode and was leased for 99 years with no loan facility registered against it.

Quotes

They have also frozen my pension account for six months now. I now live on borrowing money from friends and family to survive. This is totally wrong and a big slap on my personality. Despite all my sacrifices to my country, look at what I am getting back

Our lawyers carried out due diligence, and confirmation from the land registry showed that the property is linked to the obligor. Therefore, rather than resorting to the newsrooms, Dr. Olabisi is encouraged to prove beyond reasonable doubt in the court that the property in question is not affiliated with the company, and so has no business in the portfolio of AMCON