For allegedly defrauding their victim of the whooping sum of N130million and absconding, the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), an arm of the Nigerian Police Force, has declared a former Lagos Deputy Governor, Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu and her son, Samson Adebisi, wanted.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer, SFU, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, the complainant had petitioned SFU Commissioner of Police, Tunde Ogunsakin, when he realised the money had been obtained from him under false pretence.
She added that the 67-year-old retiree from Lagos Island, and her son who is currently in USA have been declared wanted because they confessed to the crime but jumped bail, eluding further attempts to re-arrest them.
It was gathered that the former deputy governor had sold a parcel of land at Plot 24, Block 4, situated at Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, for the sum of N130 million to the complainant who paid the said amount in tranches.
Without any idea that the said parcel of land belongs to another, the complainant was said to have developed the land and was putting finishing touches to the building when the bona ride owner of the house appeared.
While speaking, the PRO said the CP acted based on a petition from the DIG ‘D’ Department to the Commissioner in which the petitioner alleged that in September, 2011, the suspects conspired and sold the same parcel of land in contention to him under false pretences.
She said, "The victim paid into the suspect's account with the Union Bank in tranches after which he requested for the title document but Ojikutu procured an affidavit, a police crime extract and a publication in the Vanguard Newspaper of October 18, 2011, all pointing to evidence loss of the original documents of title to the land.
"Unfortunately, the Petitioner believed her because of her personality as the former Deputy Governor of Lagos but the bubble burst when he was on the verge of completion. It was the bona fide owner of the land surfaced and he realised the land the suspect sold does not belong to her.
"In fact, instead of Plot 24, Block 4 which already has a property on it, she actually sold Plot 23, Block 4, which belonged to one Mr. Afolabi, unlike the previous plot which belonged to her late husband, Samson Adebisi Ojikutu Snr, but was sold by him in 1995."
The PRO disclosed that further investigations revealed that the suspect was a witness to the sales and had appended her signature authorising the sale of the property, adding that another crime was committed by alleging the missing of the original document of the sold property.
She said, "They perpetuated another crime by alleging that the original Certificate of occupancy to the property was missing and swore an affidavit which enabled her obtain a police report and a Memorandum of Loss. She also put up an advert in newspapers backing her claim whereas the original document is with the Hallmark Homes, the buyer of the property."
In her confessional statement, the former deputy governor was said to have confessed but stressing that it was a genuine mistake of plot identification and at that refunded the sum of N50 million to the Complainant with the promise to refund the balance as soon as she disposed her two properties she put up for sale.
After signing an undertaking and payment plan which was drawn from September, 2012 and was to terminate by November 2012, the PRO said the victim defaulted due to lack of funds and has since jumped bail.
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