Fayose, Falana trade words over Abuja N1bn property

The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has criticised human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), over the allegation by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), linking the lawyer to a N1bn property on Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Fayose said it was embarrassing, shameful, disgraceful that a man of Falana’s standing, reputed to be a human rights activist, friend of the masses, crusader of justice and defender of democracy, could be linked to such a scandal.

The embattled former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, had accused Falana of buying the building which was one of the properties he helped to seize from suspected pension thieves and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Malami had while testifying before the National Assembly last week, echoed the allegation, saying the property was sold to a ‘Lagos lawyer.’

Reacting in a statement on Monday, Fayose said it was sad and shameful that Falana could be “cited in such an odious, obscene, and offensive conduct.”

He said it was not surprising that Falana had taken it upon himself to always defend the EFCC, even when the anti-graft agency acted lawlessly, since the lawyer was allegedly benefitting from the EFCC.

Fayose said, “Linking Falana to illegally-acquired properties seized by the EFCC is bad enough but the facts provided by Malami make the case against Falana even worse. This must be the real reason why Falana always fall head over heels in defence of the EFCC and Magu, not minding the vicious violations of the constitutionally-guaranteed rights, freedoms, and liberties of citizens.

“What we have always suspected has now been confirmed publicly and by no less a person as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

“Falana’s alleged unprincipled and disgusting defence of the EFCC and Magu’s penchant for disrespect of the rule of law and due process is for selfish reasons and personal gain.”

Fayose said the Federal Government must investigate Falana and not allow the matter be swept under the carpet.

But reacting to the call for his probe by Fayose, Falana, in a telephone interview with one of Punch Online, lambasted the governor for failing to pay attention to his earlier explanation on his connection with the property.

He challenged Fayose and the AGF to approach the court to seek a forfeiture order on the N1bn property if they were sure it was proceeds of crime.

Falana said, “I stand by my earlier defence that I never bought the house from the EFCC and I challenge him (Fayose) and the Attorney General to show the evidence. I challenge the garrulous Governor of Ekiti State to prove the monstrous allegation that I bought a house from the EFCC.

He added, “Since Mr. Ayo Fayose has not paid attention to the fact and circumstances of the case, I advise him to study my explanation that the house in question is a subject matter of a pending suit before the Federal High Court and that the house has been forfeited to AMCON in the interim.

“The EFCC is not a party to the case. So, if Mr. Ayo Fayose wants to join the suit, he’s free, he is at liberty to approach the Federal High Court holding at Abuja to prove his allegation. But his is a case of Ajegbodo to nweni kun ’ra. (The one recklessly eating fresh yam will always want to co-opt others into the deal.) .

“As of today, he has already forfeited six houses to the government of Nigeria. So, if he is sure that that this is proceeds of crime, he should apply to have it forfeited. He should contact the Attorney General, Mr. Malami, to apply to have the house forfeited, if they are sure that the house is proceeds of crime.”

Falana said the governor had been looking for a way to attack him “since I pressured the state to charge Mr. Fayose and his armed goons with the cold-blooded murder of Dr. Ayo Daramola and Tunde Omojola.”

-Punch

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PSquare puts Squareville up for sale

The twin singing sensation Psquare has put up their mansion at Omole in Lagos for sale.The popular ‘Squareville’ mansion which serves as home of embattled Psquare brothers, Paul and Peter Okoye, is in the market for sale.

Reports have it that the brothers have decided to sell their joint properties after their split. According to reports on Friday, visitors to the iconic mansion located on Lola Holloway Street, Omole Estate, Ikeja, were met with `For Sale’ sign-post in front of the property.

At the time when Psquare moved into the mansion in 2010, Peter Okoye was quoted saying, getting a land in Omole Estate (Ikeja, Lagos) alone is N100m.

“When you look at the house, especially the finishing, it is over $2million, and when people speculated that the house was worth N300 million, we had not even finished the interior.

“What do you think is the cost of a mansion that has a swimming pool, six living rooms, and ten master bedrooms, all fully furnished.”

There have been strains in the relationship of popular Nigerian music duo in recent times.

Photo: LIB

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How we uncovered Saraki’s N375m London property – Witness

The first prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Michael Wetkas, continued his testimony on Wednesday, giving details of how his investigative team uncovered a property in London owned by Saraki.

Wetkas, who said he led a team which investigated intelligence reports leading to the charges preferred against Saraki, is a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

He said under cross-examination by defence lawyer, Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN), on Wednesday, that the London property was acquired by Saraki in 2010 but was not declared in his asset declaration form which he submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau after completing his second term as the governor of Kwara State in 2011.

He said Saraki obtained N375m loan from the Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in 2010 and used it to pay for the London property through a mortgage redemption payment system. He said there was debit entry of $1.2m on the dollar account in favour of the pounds sterling account on February 10, 2010 and $1m on February 15, 2010.

He alleged that as contained in Count 11 in the charges preferred against the Senate President, the defendant failed to declare in his asset declaration form which he submitted to the CCB in 2011, the N375m loan as his liability and the property which he allegedly used the proceeds of the loan to buy.

Wetkas, who was led by Usoro to read from Saraki’s statements of account with GTB, traced the movement of the loan disbursed in Saraki’s naira account with its dollar equivalent transferred to his dollar account and finally its pounds sterling equivalent transferred to Saraki’s pounds sterling account.

He said foreign investigative partners “unofficially” disclosed the address of the property as No 8 Whittaker Street, London and that it had a title number NGN802235. He said the foreign partners also disclosed “unofficially” that Saraki acquired another property with title number NGN 802661at No 7 of the same street in London in 2015.

According to him, his team of investigators, discovered Saraki’s reason for obtaining the loan in the letter by the GTB offering the N370m loan to the Senate President. He also said the telex message also revealed that the transfer was for the purchase of a property.

He said, “From the loan document attached to Exhibit 7, you will see the offer letter. It was stated in the offer letter that the loan was for the purchase of property in London.

“We got to be convinced when we saw the telex showing that the money was wired for property; the mortgage redemption was for property. We were convinced based on the offer letter and the remittances shown on the telex.”

He confirmed that the three telexes showing the actual transfer from the pounds sterling account of the Senate President were prepared by the GTB. He also confirmed that the telex messages only talked about mortgage redemption.

Responding to further questions put to him by Usoro, Wetkas confirmed that “mortgage redemption means money is being refunded for facility that would have been provided for the property.”

He confirmed that he had “little knowledge” about mortgage issues, but he said he knew that mortgage agreement “usually have their terms, the property involved and the person who has the property.”

On why he did not get details and the mortgage agreement on the London property, Wetkas said GTB officials claimed that Saraki did not disclose the details to the bank.

He also said he did not have the title document for the property. The witness said apart from the telex messages and the offer letter for the loan, he did not have any other document linking Saraki to the said property.

He also said he did not question Saraki on the details of the property during investigation and did not see the mortgage agreement. He added, “We contacted our foreign partners to help us find out about the properties the defendant bought in London between 2010 a 2015.

“They confirmed to us that the defendant bought two properties – one in 2011 and the other in 2015.

“They told us No 8 Whittaker Street, London, with title number NGN802235 was purchased in 2011 and that the second one with title number NGN 802661 which was at No. 7 of the same street was bought in 2015.

“This information was sent to us unofficially. And they promised to send it to us officially soon so that we can tender it.”

He explained that given the international dimension to the case, they needed to go through the governments of the relevant nations before information could be officially obtained from foreign partners.

Usoro also questioned Wetkas on Count 5, in which Saraki was accused of failing to declare his property at 37 A Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos and the alleged annual income of N5.5m on the asset.

He said his team discovered that the property was acquired by Saraki through his company, Carlisle Properties Limited while executing a search warrant on the company’s office.

The trial was adjourned till May 25 for further cross-examination of the witness.

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Man arrested for selling late father’s house for N500k

A 62-year-old man, Adewale Mabun, has been arrested and charged before Isolo Magistrates’ court for allegedly selling his late father’s house for N500,000 without involving other siblings in Lagos State, western Nigeria reports PM News.

He was remanded in prison custody after he failed to meet his bail condition. Ogun State-born Mabun allegedly contacted Rasheed Komolafe and negotiated to sell their late father’s bungalow for the amount which he paid.

The house in question is located at 11, Silva Street, Mushin where the family buried their late father.
The late father married three wives and many children while Mabun is the eldest. During the negotiation, it was agreed that Mabun will evacuate their late father’s corpse to enable Komalafe to take possession and paid another amount for the evacuation.

While the transaction was going on, other children from their late father did not know about it.
Trouble started after Mabun secretly evacuated their father’s corpse from the tomb and carried it to their home town and buried it. He remained there with the new wife he married.
When members of the family realized what Mabun had done, the resisted it and asked Komolafe to collect his money back from Mabun.

Consequently, Komolafe went to the police and reported what happened and the police trailed Mabun to his home town and arrested him. He was brought him back to Lagos to face prosecution.
When the police asked him to refund the money, he said he had spent it by building a shop in their village and marrying another wife.

He was charged to court with obtaining under false pretence and stealing under the Criminal code.
When Mabun was arraigned, he pleaded not guilty. The presiding Magistrate, Mrs A. K. Shonubi granted Mabun bail in the sum of N200,000 with one surtey in like sum.

He was remanded in prison custody at Kirikiri pending when he will perfect his bail condition.
The matter was adjourned till 11 April, 2016.

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Photos: Cristiano Ronaldo 'to buy $23million apartment' in NYC's Trump Tower

According to TMZ, Cristiano Ronaldo is eyeing up another apartment in New York's Trump Tower, with a price tag of $23million. The football legend is reportedly keen to snap up the newly available space in Presidential hopeful Donald Trump's famous building, despite splashing out $18.5million on another apartment in the same building back in August.

Ronaldo, who is on a record 5-year contract worth $206 million with his team Real Madrid, is said to be interested in a $23million apartment on the 63rd floor of the Fifth Avenue building. The sportsman already owns an apartment a few floors below his potential new pad, splashing out on the 2,500 square foot home last summer.

The new apartment is considerably more palatial though, boasting 3,700 square feet and spectacular views over both Central Park and the city. The current decor is perfectly in keeping with Trump's signature real estate style, boasting antique furniture, wood panelling and marble floors. See more photos below...

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