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| Johnson |
The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has declared a manhunt for a lawyer and two bank managers (names
withheld) for allegedly duping a former Military Administrator of Lagos State,
Brig. Gen Mobolaji Johnson, of the sum of N135m.
A source at the EFCC said the lawyer
had offered a property belonging to the former Governor for lease without his
approval.
The source said the lawyer connived
with the two bank managers to clear a cheque issued on a phoney lease agreement
by opening a fake fix deposit account in the name of the former governor.
The lawyer was said to have leased a
property situated at No. 182 A Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, to
Stallion Motors Limited in 2008 in the sum of N270m but later offered N182m by
claiming that the landlord instructed him to offer it to the firm in place of
the former one.
It was stated that the company paid
50 per cent of the agreed sum of N270m to the lawyer after negotiations which
was N135m, with an agreement to pay the balance after taking possession of the
property.
The source said the company could
not take possession long after making the first payment only to realise that
the deal was fraudulent.
It was stated further that the
lawyer pleaded with the company to refund the money to them with interest and
issued some post-dated cheques on an agreed sum of N200m which did not yield
any benefit to the company.
The embattled lawyer was said to
have pleaded with the company to withhold presenting the cheques even though
allegedly failed to make an alternative arrangement to refund the money.
Investigations revealed that the
EFCC is after the two bank manager for alleged collusion with the lawyer to
cash the cheque issued in the name of the governor.
It was further gathered that the
former governor had told EFCC operatives investigating the financial crime that
he did not give any instruction to the lawyer to act as an agent to him on the
said property.
The former governor was also said to
have said the money was not paid into his account.
The Head of Media and Publicity of
the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that the commission was investigating
the alleged fraud.
“I am aware that the commission is
investigating that case,” he said
Punch
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