Court told how ex-Chevron accountant allegedly defrauded victim

The prosecution witnesses, Oye Oyeniran and Olubukola Oladiran, have told a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja how a former accountant with Chevron Nigeria Ltd, Michael Adenuga, allegedly defrauded them of 22.68 hectares of land worth N5billion.

The duo narrated this while giving evidence before Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya. They alleged that the defendant (Adenuga) defrauded them and some other investors by fraudulently converting landed property they jointly owned to his personal own. 

Adenuga and his company, Covenant Apartment Complex Ltd., are facing three-count charge of stealing, forgery and use of false documents. The charge was leveled against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charge when they were arraigned on May 2014.

The defendants were alleged to have fraudulently converted a 22.68 hectares of land located in the Lekki area of Lagos between February 2008 and September 2011, to their own use.

The anti-graft agency alleged that the property, situated at Ayetoro Ikota, in Lekki area of Lagos, was jointly owned by Covenant Sugarland Property Development Ltd., and Messrs Sunday and Joseph Oyeniran and was proposed to be developed as a residential neighborhood to be called Sugarland Town. 

The defendants are also accused of forging a document titled, “Contract of Sale between Covenant Apartment Ltd. and Kingview Realty Ltd.,” to facilitate the theft.

According to the EFCC, the said document was later presented by Adenuga to one of its officers, Mr. James Buzugbe, as genuine.

The commission said the offences contravened Sections 278 (1) and 285 (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

In his evidence before the court, Oladiran who is into real estate and had executed many projects, said he and other investors under his group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Adenuga’s group to jointly buy the land with each group raising half of the cost.

He (Oladiran) stated that despite the initial hurdles of raising the money to acquire the landed property, they eventually did and the land became fully owned by Covenant Sugarland Property Development Limited. But to the surprise of other investors, Adenuga went behind to obtain the signature of the original land owner, the Ojomu Chieftaincy Family on a “Deed of Assignment” made in his company’s name for 17.2 hectares of the land. 

Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Mr. Emmanuel Jackson, the witness told court that Adenuga proceeded to obtain the Governor’s consent on the fraudulent “Deed of Assignment” document with forged Survey Plan and through the scheme denied the government huge sum of money in statutory fees. 

“The said “Deed of Assignment” was registered as No 63 at Page 63 in Volume 2398 with the Lagos State Land Registry. Within days of registering the “Deed of Assignment”, he approached and used the fraudulent document to obtain hundreds of millions of Naira in financial facilities from Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Limited (formerly known as GTHomes Limited)”, the witness testified.

Three witnesses, Oyeniran, Oyeniran and Olubukola Adeyemi Oladiran, have so far testified against Adenuga. They have all told the court how various sums of money were raised through investors to develop the project.