About a month ago, one of my readers called to register his displeasure with the topics I have been writing on in recent times. Apparently, he is not happy with certain developments in the country, particularly with the Federal Government, and would have wanted me to devote more time and energy in that direction. I quite understood his point. But I also made him to realise that there are so many things happening outside of the government that are worthy of mention; and perhaps with wider ramifications than even what is happening in government. At that time, I had written about the power sector generally twice before narrowing it to my personal experience in the sector in the third article, within a month. I asked him if the power sector was undeserving of such focus. He agreed with me. I also explained the rationale in one or two other articles I had written and he agreed with me. Since then, I have had to write on what I called “Killer excise duties”, in response to the over 500 per cent rise in the excise duties payable on locally made spirits and wines and its likely implications on the economy, among others.
One point must be made though; and it is that in Nigeria, writers can hardly be bereft of issues to comment on, at the rate at which things are happening by the minute. But there is life after government. As a matter of fact, if one narrows one’s write-ups to the government, there is the tendency of just repeating oneself because there is hardly anything new to say on any given issue. Notwithstanding, I agree there are times one cannot but get angry enough to pillory the government when one reviews the goings-on in the country, especially when it is realised that our lives depend so much on what government does or fails to do.
You can therefore imagine the quagmire I was in on Thursday when searching for what to write on this week. Somehow, I eventually settled for what would pass for a minor issue to many, but which would be quite appreciated by those who had fallen victims to such scammers. This is part of what used to make Lagos tick in reverse some years back. I remember King Sunny Ade at least once sang about it. Jibiti nbe ni Lagos, to’nta ‘le kan feni mejo (there is fraud in Lagos where a house is sold to eight buyers). It is all about those who sell the same piece of land to several buyers.
However, this present case is not about land selling, but about renting out eight apartments to about 133 persons. The figure could be more; it could just be that only the 133 of them came forward to ask for justice in the matter. The man in the centre of it all; one Alhaji Ayobami Oseni, a property developer, was only last week sentenced to 2,670 years for duping the 133 prospective tenants. As a matter of fact, it was the headline that grabbed my attention: “Developer bags 2,670 years for duping 133 tenants of N25m”. That was sensational and catchy enough.
What happened was that the developer was arraigned by the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) on December 7, 2012. Prosecuting counsel, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abraham Fadipe, told the court that the one-storey building that Oseni was developing at 3, Church Street, Ajao Estate, Lagos, contained four mini-flats and two self-contained apartments. But Oseni posed as a landlord, erected vacancy signs around Ajao Estate when the building was under construction. As is usual in such circumstances in Lagos, it was only a matter of time for prospective tenants to start trooping in to make enquiries. Oseni began collecting rents, agency and agreement fees ranging from N160,000 to N300,000 from at least 133 of them, making a total of N25million and assured each of them that they would get an apartment in the building. The victims then petitioned the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD), an arm of the ministry of housing, which invited the police and held a watching brief during the nearly six-year trial.
Chief Magistrate O.O. Olatunji who tried the case convicted Oseni after he pleaded guilty to 267 counts of conspiracy, obtaining under false pretences, and stealing. Oseni bagged 10 years imprisonment on each of the 267 counts; there was no option of fine. However, since the sentences are to run concurrently, the developer would now spend about nine years in prison, having spent one year in prison custody.
Someone who has not fallen victim to the antics of people like Oseni in Lagos or elsewhere might be wondering how that merits being commented on. But those who had been duped in the past would appreciate it even as the judgment would serve as deterrence to other prospective dupes who might want to toe Oseni’s path. Indeed, the case should also be of help to many people out there who might be looking for apartments, especially in Lagos, to look carefully before they leap.
Cases like this simply remind us that Ejigbadero, the land-grabber-in chief in Lagos in the 1970s, is still very much around, even though he has since paid dearly for his crimes. His ‘descendants’ are still all over the place, prowling like some hungry lions, looking for the person to devour. But the good news is that much as the criminals have learnt to shoot without missing, the state government too has learnt to fly without perching, apologies to Chinua Achebe. Some people in the social circles would tell you that gonorrhea is a disease of the famous; land-grabbing or selling one plot of land to several buyers used to be a thing of pride in Lagos. Mercifully, all that is changing. There is hardly any crime that is committed that the Lagos State government does not have an answer to. If you are a man who cannot control your libido, you have the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) to contend with. The only regret here is that while this law protects only women against wife-beating, there is no such agency to take care of the men who are battered by their wives. Yet, the state government itself recently admitted that there is a growing incidence of wives beating their husbands to pulp. Then, just about two years ago, the state government came up with the anti-omo onile law or Properties Protection Law which is being enforced by the Special Task Force on Land Grabbers.
In the Oseni matter, the victims took advantage of LASRETRAD. Although the case lasted six long years, the criminal got his comeuppance in the end. Like many other poor thieves, Oseni is not wasting anybody’s time by threatening to appeal the judgment. The man simply accepted his fate. As a matter of fact, when Chief Magistrate Olatunji asked him for his allocution, Oseni merely asked for mercy. “Well, I plead for mercy from the court concerning the statement (sic) against me. I plead that the court should temper justice with mercy. I have learnt my lesson. I have been in detention for two years, 19 days. It will never happen again. I end my statement.” That was the end of the story. But our ‘ogbologbo’ (very important?) pen robbers would never accept even if they were caught with their hands right in the cookie jar. You will see all manner of legal luminaries propounding all manner of legal theories to prove that the judge was not learned in law or that his court was not even competent in the first place to try the matter. They will then threaten to appeal the judgment, knowing full well that their clients were guilty as charged. They will still be shopping for a corrupt judge through whom they could subvert the law to free their high influential clients.
This is why the answer given by the acting chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu when Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka asked him (Magu) to show him the place reserved for our VIP suspects in the new ultra-modern EFCC headquarters in Abuja, excited me. Magu had told Soyinka (who apparently asked a leading question) that in the facility, all animals are equal. That is the way it should be. That is one sure way to put an end to corruption in the country.
