Phantom company uses dead man’s property to obtain N145m loan

By Innocent Anaba

In 2011, a non-existing company, JNC Limited, allegedly fraudulently obtained a N145 million loan from bank, now defunct, using a dead man’s property as collateral, court processes have shown.

In a bid to recover the loan with accumulated interest, Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, had gone to a Federal high court sitting in Lagos, only to discover that Mr. Samuel Omotoso, who purporte-dly guaranteed the loan using his property located at 5, Oduduwa Street, Government Reserved Area, Ikeja, Lagos, died three years before the loan agreement was executed.

The loan was obtained in 2011 while Omotoso, whose signature was forged for the purpose of obtaining the loan, died in 2008.

AMCON had, in November 2015, obtained an ex parte interim order against Omotoso to take possession of his property and to attach any funds in his account in satisfaction of the loan.

However, when late Omotoso’s estate heard of the orders, it hired lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Aladesanmi, who entered a conditional appearance and informed the court that he (Omotoso) died in 2008, three years before he was said to have executed the purported mortgage of his property for the said loan.

He filed an application asking the court to set aside all the orders obtained against the deceased, and to strike out his name from the proceedings.

The trial judge, Justice Muslim Hassan, on September 28, 2016, granted the application and set aside all orders against Omotoso and also struck out his name from the proceedings.

Although, AMCON later applied to join Omotoso’s estate to the suit, it applied to discontinue having discovered that the suit was filed against a dead man and that all the orders against the deceased were a nullity.

Shortly after AMCON discontinued the suit having realised the fraud, the estate of Omotoso took over the property.

Police against court order

However, in October 2016, AMCON procured armed mobile policemen to forcibly take possession of the premises chasing away the guards put there by the estate.

In a protest letter to the Inspector General of Police, counsel to Omotoso’s estate, Aladesanmi asked the police boss to order his men out of the premises in accordance with the decision of court since the basis upon which AMCON took over the property had been set aside by the court.

In another letter to AMCON’s lawyer, Nick Omeye, the estate of Omotoso said: “As you are also aware, the JNC Limited, which was purportedly the beneficiary of the loan by the bank, does not exist, and is a fictitious company. Yet you still continue to advise your client to take the law into its hands.

“In essence, the entire arrangement, from the application for the loan, mortgage, disbursal of the loan, and the taking over of the facility by AMCON are all tainted with fraud.”

 

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