Former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, has maintained that she is innocent of the allegation of fraud levelled against her and her son, Samson.
In a statement made available to Saturday PUNCH
on Thursday, Ojikutu denied that she and Samson obtained N130m under
false pretences from the complainant, Mr. Cajetan Okekearu.
She claimed that the said amount was collected under genuine circumstances for the sale of a plot of land to Okekearu.
According to the statement, the said
plot belonging to Ojikutu and her late husband, Sampson Ojikutu, is
Block 4, Plot 24, Lekki Peninsula Residential Scheme, Phase 1.
It, however, accused the complainant of constructing on a wrong plot of land – plot 23 – which is the adjoining plot.
The statement, which was signed by
Ojikutu’s solicitors, B. Ayorinde and Co., read in part, “That
subsequently, Mr. Cajetan Okekearu commenced construction on Block 4,
Plot 23, Lekki Residential Scheme Phase1, the land adjoining Block 4,
Plot 24, Lekki Residential Scheme Phase 1, whereupon one Afolabi A. A.
Coker successfully challenged Mr. Okekearu’s entry onto the land.
“It was after the events above that our
clients discovered for the first time that Mr. Okekearu had built on
Block 4, Plot 23, Lekki Residential Scheme Phase 1 instead of Block 4,
Plot 24, Lekki Residential Scheme Phase 1.”
Ojikutu maintained that she and her son
had relied on the authority of a Letter of Administration (without a
will) granted by the Probate Registry of the Lagos State High Court in
2010 with reference no PHC/2114/2010, “pursuant to which my aforesaid
son and me are the administrators of my aforesaid late husband’s estate,
which includes the said land.”
The statement further said that Alhaja
Ojikutu had signed an undertaking to refund N130m to Okekearu, and had
already paid N50m out of the said amount.
Also in the statement, Ojikutu’s lawyers
maintained that she had legal rights to the land as its joint owner,
and therefore, had the prerogative to sell following her husband’s death
in 2008. It also denied that Ojikutu ever used the said land in any
transaction prior to when the land was sold to Okekearu.
Earlier in the week, the Special Fraud
Unit of the Nigeria Police had declared the former deputy governor
wanted for allegedly defrauding a land buyer of N130m.
The SFU alleged that the suspect and her
son, Samson, fraudulently obtained the money from Okekearu by selling a
plot of land belonging to one Mr. Afolabi, to the complainant.
The police also accused Ojikutu of
jumping bail and not willing to abide by the terms of payment, which
should have had her completely refund Okekearu by November 2012.
Meanwhile, Ojikutu is away in the United
States of America and so far, there is no indication of when she
intends to return to the country, in spite of her status as a wanted
citizen.
She directed all questions from Saturday PUNCH to her lawyer, Mr. Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), who did not pick his calls or respond to a text message to his phone.
PUNCH
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