Kemisola Oye
A businessman, Oketola Benson Adewole has narrated before a Lagos Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja how a lawyer, Ironsi Emmanuel Okoroafor allegedly defrauded him of the sum of N73 million in order to obtain land title.
Adewole, in his testimony before Justice Olubusola Okunuga, said the defendant, Okoroafor, was his lawyer.
Led in evidence by counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ahmad Usman, the witness narrated how he got to know Okoroafor.
In his evidence, the prosecution witness said the defendant was introduced to him through his friend, Paul Adeyemi who is a Police officer.
“Adeyemi was the one that introduced Okoroafor to me as his lawyer, and he said I could use him if I have any legal issues.”
He further stated that he is into fish farming and also a businessman. He told the court that he had many legal activities with the defendant.
He said, “The first work he did for me was when my uncle purchased a flat, he prepared the agreement for me and I paid him N200.000.00. The second was when I wanted to sponsor a community, he prepared an agreement for me and it was paid for into his wife’s account because they operate a joint account. Also when I had an issue with the EFCC in Abuja, he came with me and I sponsored all the bills.”
When he was asked about other legal services the defendant rendered to him, he responded that he owns four plots of land at Gedegede Waterfront Lekki, Lagos and that his lawyer, the defendant, suggested he could perfect the land title for him.
“One faithful day, the defendant called me saying ‘Chief Benson, this your land at Gedegede Waterfront what documents do you have for it? He said that I could not develop that place without genuine documents and that he could perfect all the necessary documents for the land for me. I believed and accepted his advice.”
The witness further told the court that the defendant said he would bring a surveyor from the Surveyor-General’s office to come and measure the land.
“We fixed a date for a meeting. Myself, the defendant (Okoroafor) and Peter Tyson, from the surveyor general’s office, walked through the land and nobody harassed or accosted us.
“Tyson measured the land and said the total cost for a survey and everything was N35 million which I told him I don’t have such an amount and he said I should bring N18 million.”
The witness also told the court that the defendant introduced Tyson to him as a person working in a ministry so such an amount of money can’t be paid into his account that he will provide an account to pay the money into. “He gave me Mary Ajibade’s account which I paid N18 million into.”
The prosecution witness further narrated that the defendant told him that they had changed people working in the ministry and that he should pay N2 million again which he paid into the defendant’s account.
He said after some months, the defendant told him that they were done with the survey and it remained Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) and that he paid N50 million in April 2022 into the defendant’s FCMB account.
“Thereafter, the defendant said I should pay an extra N3 million to fast track the C of O and necessary things. I was now waiting to take my papers and I asked for receipts but he didn’t give me any receipts. He said all the receipts are in my personal file.
“There was a day I went to his house, I asked him to bring out my file, but Okoroafor said he couldn’t find my file.
“He kept giving me excuses my Lord. There were times he said they changed the commissioner and another time that Governor Sanwo-Olu travelled to America.”
The businessman said he went to the Lands Registry at Alausa, and that it was there he found out that Governor Sanwo-Olu is no longer using CofO again for the past two years.
“When I got home, I narrated to my family the outcome. I then went to the defendant’s house. I narrated my findings from the Surveyor-General’s office to him. He asked me who told me all that and I responded to him that I needed my money back.
“After some months nothing was done. So I wrote a petition through another lawyer to the EFCC.”
The witness was thereafter cross-examined by the defendant’s counsel, Mr James Babatunde Alara. The witness affirmed that before going to the EFCC office with his petition through another lawyer he was not owing the defendant.
Adewole also told the court that he gave the defendant, “a Deed of Assignment concerning the land at Gedegede to secure the C of O.”
After listening to the witness testimony, Justice Okunuga subsequently adjourned the case till 10 April 2025 for continuation of trial.
Eighteen-Eleven Median