An aged Italian-turned-Nigerian widow has cried out over what she described as unlawful arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a property that is the subject of an ongoing suit at the Court of Appeal, Lagos, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.
Ms. Floriana De-Stefani never imagined that she would have to fight to live in the house she had lived in with her late husband, Mr. Luca Signorelli, for decades.
Until his death at the age of 68 in 2012 Signorelli and his wife, De-Stefani, were not known with ang other home than the posh property located on 14 A/B Warring Road (formerly Bayo Kuku Road) in Ikoyi area of Lagos State. The said property was allegedly purchased from Waterside Properties Limited with valid titles and documents in his name.
When he died, the rights to his property passed to Ms. De-Stefani and her children. However, the property has become the subject of a legal face-off between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) purportedly acting on a petition written against the 76-year-old widow who was born to an Italian family but has naturalised to a Nigerian since 2002.
In 2019, the EFCC dragged De-Stefani to the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja on a six-count charge bordering on stealing, forgery, use of false documents, and obtaining property by pretences via suit no ID/870/7/C/19.
In the judgment delivered on October 7, 2022, the presiding judge, Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada, held that while the court may not be able to convict De-Stefani for forgery among the five-count charge, it can still convict her for the six-count charge of use of false documents.
The judge therefore convicted De-Stefani and sentenced her to three years imprisonment with an option of N50 million in place of the prison term. The judge also ordered De-Stefani to yield possession of the controversial property within three weeks of the judgment.
De-Stefani opted to pay N50 million in place of jail term and was freed from custody while she also filed an appeal against her conviction by the lower court at the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos alongside a stay of execution against the enforcement of the judgment via suit no: CA/LAG/CR/928/2022.
The EFCC (representing the Federal Government in the suit) was served and has acknowledged the appeal suit with a respondents’ brief of argument.
In a twist, the anti-graft agency on December 18, 2023, rearrested De-Stefani for failing to obey the judgment of the Lagos High Court.
A statement issued by the spokesman of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said the aged woman was rearrested for disobedience of the order of the lower court.
He said the judge, on October 7, 2022, found Ms. De-Stefani guilty of using false documents and counterfeit seals to confer on herself ownership of a property belonging to a company, Waterside Properties Limited, an offence contrary to Section 366 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.
According to the EFCC, the judge, while delivering judgment, sentenced the convict to three years in prison and also ordered the release of the property on 14 A&B Warring Road (formerly Bayo Kuku Road), Ikoyi, Lagos, to Waterside Properties Limited within three weeks.
The statement reads: “Ms De-Stefani was re-arrested on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, for refusing to vacate the property ordered for release to the company by the court.
“Following her arrest on Tuesday, she was also issued a notice by the commission to vacate the property within seven days or risk legal actions.
“De-Stefani, alongside Stella Ndubusi Ogboju, was first arraigned on March 30, 2019, on a five-count charge bordering on forgery and stealing of a property belonging to a company, Waterside Properties Limited.
“The charges were later amended by the prosecution counsel, Ahmed Yerima, to a six-count charge,” the EFCC statement said.
Meanwhile, Ms. De-Stefani has cried out that her arrest by the EFCC for contempt of court over her failure to vacate her property on Warring Road, Ikoyi, Lagos was unlawful and a violation of her rights.
She said the arrest was carried out by the anti-graft agency against the pendency of her appeal on the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
She said she now lives in fear after the operatives of the anti-graft agency stormed her home with persons suspected to be hoodlums to forcibly eject her from the property in contention at the court.
She said: “I am a trained medical doctor turned administrator. I have lived in Nigeria for almost 50 years.
“I have worked as Chief of Personnel for several construction companies including Guffanti Limited, Roccon Construction Limited, and a few others.
“I became a naturalised Nigerian in 2002. I came to Nigeria on June 17, 1975, during the signing of the contract for the construction of the Third Mainland Bridge.
“Back then, what I saw of the Nigerian state was a paradise in terms of the environment, people, and society in particular. But my experience in the last few years of this saga has been unpleasant.
“I have spent several days in detention since the fight over my late husband’s property started, Of note, in 2019, I was arrested and detained for three days in Abuja by the EFCC, the same as my arrest on December 18, 2023, before I was released on December 19.
Read Also: EFCC re-arrests convicted Italian over contempt of court
“Curiously, the police details that were given to me following my application to the police authorities for special protection in July 2023 were recalled a few weeks ago without any prior notice other than verbal notification, thus exposing me to constant fear of being attacked or molested by hoodlums who loiter around my home since the EFCC failed attempt to eject me from home.
“I no longer feel safe in my home because of the Gestapo manner in which my latest arrest was carried out by the EFCC.
“However, no matter what they do, I will not surrender my property to anybody or unknown entity. That is why I have taken my matter to the Court of Appeal and the matter is still ongoing,” De-Stefani said before the conversation with our reporter was terminated following a phone call she received about a development on the matter, which she must urgently attended to.
She further said in a statement issued in Lagos by his counsel, Clinton Anwara, that the anti-graft agency was aware that an appeal and stay of execution had been filed against the judgment of the lower court at the Court of Appeal in Lagos, yet, it insisted on her forcible ejection from the property and misled the public through the media about the facts of the case.
The statement reads in part: “We restate emphatically that an application for stay of execution of the judgment of the trial court ordering our client to give up possession of the property at 14 Warring Road, Ikoyi, Lagos to Waterside Properties Limited has been filed at the Court of Appeal, and parties are expected to maintain the status quo pending the hearing and the determination of the application for a stay of execution.
“The record of proceedings having been compiled and transmitted to the Court of Appeal, the lower court has lost jurisdiction to take any step as regards the subject matter which includes the enforcement/ execution of the said judgment.”
The statement described a recent attempt by the EFCC to enforce the judgment as unlawful and a violation of the sanctity of the judiciary as the final arbiter.
It added: “It came to our notice that on 18th December, 2023, some officials of the EFCC charged into our client’s property on 14 Warring Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, without a court order or court sheriff to execute the said judgment.
“We had taken the liberty of contacting both the sheriffs of the high court and the Appeal Court, whose duty it is to enforce the judgment of the court and none is aware or approved the purported enforcement of the said judgment of the Court of Appeal.”
