Supporter of institutional reforms and president/founder of SIAF, Segun Awosanya, better known as Segalink, has pleaded with the Abacha family and the developer involved in the property at No. 68, Molade Okoya Thomas Street, off Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, to adhere to the legal process and go back to arbitration.
Awosanya expressed his growing anxiety in a statement, saying that he has tracked the development of the property-related litigation case between the Abacha family and the developer.
Based on his review of the records, he concluded that the project had encountered problems from the beginning, and he added that the JV arrangement started in 2021 and the developer relocated to the site in 2022.
He stated that there were encumbrances on the property, such as sitting tenants who refused to be evicted and years of unpaid land use charges.
Landowners demanded a premium of N100 million to finalise the agreement, according to Awosanya, and the land had been for sale on the property market for five years prior to the JV agreement.
He asserted that Zenith Bank was marketed to by the Abachas despite the fact that the joint venture partner had already started building on the land, and that the certificate of occupancy was later found stolen.
He said the Abachas blocked the developer’s power of attorney from being registered at the Lagos State Land Bureau after the family was pushed to do so by the development.
“Every one of these intrigues was recorded,” he commented.
It was the landowners’ contribution, according to Awosanya, and the land was worth around N400 million when the arrangement was made.
He concluded that the developer had allegedly invested more than N17 billion since then, a sum he ascribed in part to the monetary shifts brought about by the fuel subsidy’s elimination in 2023.
He went on to say that the landowners stood to gain an estimated N9 billion from their share of the finished development, according to the same estimations.
Arbitration had been suggested, and the case was already before an appropriate court, as Awosanya pointed out.
Nevertheless, he voiced his displeasure with an ex parte order that, in his view, failed to apprise the court of crucial facts and led to the designation of a receiver/manager for the development.
He firmly believed that the order should be thrown aside because it was issued on an incomplete picture.
According to him, it was a misuse of the judicial process to get these orders without being completely transparent, which goes against the obligation of candour to the court.
Awosanya further stated that there was no legal basis for past attempts to stop the site’s work, including the deployment of security agencies.
Additionally, he expressed his displeasure with what he saw as an increasing amount of media coverage praising the ex parte order and promised to deal with the matter next week.
The investment, he added, was already providing significant value to all parties involved, including the landowners, therefore he urged them to respect the legal process, go back to arbitration, and safeguard the investment.