Lawyer petitions DIG over alleged N16m fraud

A lawyer, Greg Nwakogo, has petitioned the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police over an allegation that a subsidiary of a telecommunication company, Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited, fraudulently obtained the sum of N16m from his client, Patrick Nwakogo, with the intention and assurance that they will deliver three units of residential properties to him at a purported Estate called Y’ello Estate, Lekki Peninsula, in Lagos.

Nwakogo, through his counsel, Greg Nwakogo, from ROSBERG Legal Practitioners & Arbitrators, stated further in the petition that, after payment of the N16m into the account of the company by his client, he was issued a purported letter of allocation dated 22nd September 2008.

It was also stated in the petition that the N16m paid by Patrick Nwakogo, was purportedly 20% equity contribution of the purchase price for the 4 units of properties in the alleged Estate, and that the properties will be delivered within 18 months.

The petitioner also alleged that the company also demanded that he should make further payments which he refused when he became suspicious of their activities.

“They had demanded that our client make further payment of other installments but our client seeing that not a single work had begun after the first installment decided to mitigate his risk”, he stated.

Nwokogo and his Counsel also added that efforts to get his money back from the company after several requests proved abortive.

“Subsequent to personal demands made by our client to the company and after he briefed us, we engaged the company with a view to their refunding the money but all efforts made by this firm with a view to getting them to repay the money fraudulently obtained from our client proved abortive”, he added.

The lawyers also alleged in the petition that, “it is evident from the actions of the company that at the time they tricked our client to dole out the sum of N16m to them that they clearly had no intention whatsoever of delivering the properties to our client. It is obvious that their action would at best be termed a sham and same is punishable by law”.

When The Guardian visited the company corporate headquarters, he could not be allowed to speak with anyone, but was only given an email address of the Public Relations Manager, whose name was given as Funsho Aina.

However, all effort to get Aina’s response was unsuccessful. Even an email sent to his inbox over a week ago, requesting for his response were not replied as at press time.

Counsel to the petitioner, Greg Nwokogo, also stated that his firm has not been contacted by the company or anybody as far as the matter is concerned.