The Group Managing Director, CFL Group, Mr. Lai Omotola on Monday accused the Lagos Attorney General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo of using forged police document to file criminal charge against him in court.
Omotola, who is also the Group Managing Director/CEO, Master Reality International Concepts Limited, at a news conference in Lagos on Monday tendered a document from the Inspector General of Police where it was discovered that the document used in filing criminal charge against him at the High Court of Lagos was forged.
He, thus, called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to wade into the matter by investigating what actually happened and why he was being framed by the Justice Ministry.
According to Omotola, on the 8th of June, 2022 a bench warrant was issued against him from the court of Honourable Justice Olatunde Oshodi and that on the 10th of June, 2022, his lawyers filed a motion for stay of execution in front of the same judge which still subsisted.
He said it had become apparent to him how the AG had been allegedly hell-bent on using the judiciary to embarrass his person and send put him in custody for his own selfish and personal interest.
“On the 20th of January, 2020 I received a call from one of our security men from our property at 63 Iju road, Agege that staff of Lagos State were at our premises demolishing our property. All efforts to stop them came to no avail.
“The next day my attention was drawn to a Punch newspaper report where the coordinator of Lagos State Taskforce on Land Grabbing demolished the property and had since returned the land to the rightful owner in the person of Mrs. Olatokunbo Williams and that me Lai Omotola is a land grabber.
“Upon the receipt of this report, I spoke to the Attorney General of Lagos State drawing his attention to the report and also informing him how our property has been demolished and that the coordinator of Taskforce on Land grabbing, Mr. Arole Owolabi informed me that it was with his consent that the building was demolished and I would like him to call us together in order to resolve the issue.
“He responded by saying that if he was to call him he was going to deny all I have said and that what I have to do was to do a petition against him. I did the petition against Mr. Owolabi Arole and same was delivered to him.
“Upon receipt of the petition by the A.G, I was called that a panel has been set up headed by the Solicitor General Mrs. Titilayo Shitta Bey. At the meeting Mrs Shitta bey said since two persons were laying ownership on the land and they have purchased from different vendors, then its an issue of land dispute instead of land grabbing and that parties should go and seek redress in court since the matter is before the court,” he explained.
Omotola added that Shitta-Bey handed over the file to Mr. Adebayo Haroun for further investigation and that he never received a letter from Haroun to bring his witnesses which he obliged.
He said the investigation was completed and that all efforts to get a report of the investigation was to no avail, adding that during the course of awaiting the report, he also filed a petition to zone 2 police command on malicious damage against Arole.
“He was invited by Zone 2 Police Command but he declined to honour the invitation. The investigation at Zone 2 was also stalled. We continued to send letters to get update on the report to the AG. It is on record we have written the AG 7 times without a response.
“For 18 months, there was no response until 22nd of March, 2022 when I received a notice of arraignment from the office of the DPP at 1.10p.m on the same day the arraignment was taking place. I instructed my lawyer to go to the court but on getting there, he discovered that a bench warrant has been issued by Justice Olatunde Oshodi at 11am even before the notice of arraignment was brought to the office.
“On the same day, we requested for the processes filed in the court only to discover that the office of the Attorney General has colluded with one CSP Akinjide Alabi of Zone 2 Police Command to forged my statement in order to develop a charge against me.
“To prove my case, I subjected the statement for forensic at Alagbon FCID and the result came out to be forged. My lawyer, on the forensic report wrote to the AG but the letter was ignored to buttress our claim of conspiracy. I then petitioned the CSP that was used to perpetrate the forgery to the Inspector General of Police,” Omotola explained.
Omotola added that the IGP ordered a thorough investigation and was discovered the CSP obtained an unapproved petition from a suspect “in my own petition by the name Mr. Niyi Odunsi upon which all other documents were forged. Upon this realization, the office of the IGP wrote a letter to the AG informing him that all documents were forged and that no police formation carried out any investigation on what generated a charge.
“Still, the AG continue to ignore the letter. On the 8th of June, 2022, my lawyer through an affidavit brought the attention of the honourable court to the letter of IG to the AG and instead of the Judge looking at the substance to the letter, he flared up. I will like to say at this junction that I call on Honourable Justice Oshodi to recuse himself from this matter because he has become an interested party in the matter and therefore I can never get justice in his court for the following reasons.”
Omotola wondered how a judge could issue a bench warrant on the first hearing of a matter, when the suspect had not been served nor was there any evidence of his arrest by police to show that he was on administrative bail.
“Ordinarily, it’s the police that serve suspect with the charge personally but because it was known to both the Attorney General and Justice Olatunde Oshodi that the Police was not involved in the persecution the only way to commence the proceedings was to first issue a bench warrant and then served a notice of arraignment at my office which will compel me to come.
“I ask all the judges in Nigeria, is this the procedure? Recently, in the case of Rochas Okoracha, the judge insisted that if by the next adjourned date the suspect was not brought to court, the case shall be struck out hence the forceful arrest of Okorocha by EFCC to bring him to court.
“The Judge also showed biased when my lawyer said since I was challenging the jurisdiction of the court as an applicant, I need not to be in court. The Judge has to step down proceeding arguing that he has a supreme court authority that says the applicant should be in court. My believe is that it is the prosecutor that should be opposing the position and not the judge who has descended into the arena,” he said.
Omotola further alleged that the judge never gave his lawyers opportunity to talk and that instead, he continued to intimidate them by asking “if they were lawyers and even if they attended English classes. I think the Judge should recuse himself from this case as he has become an interested party.
“The intention of the judge and the attorney general is to arraign me so the judge can slam stringent bail conditions that I will not be able to meet for 3 months and also seize my passport and while I am in custody move into my property and hand over to Mrs Olatokunbo Williams to hurriedly build on the land and while in custody I can sign a letter of withdrawal of my petition.”
Omotola wanted the AG to answer the following questions: “Was he not the one who told me to write a petition? Can office of Land grabber adjudicate on a matter already before the court? Can you ascribe ownership of land to a particular person when same is before the court? Can you successfully prosecute a criminal matter when ownership is yet to be decided?
“‘Does Governor’s consent cure any defect in title. Did you not receive letter from the IG office informing you that there was never an investigation and the police documents with you never came from them? Can you prosecute without police investigation? How can I be a petitioner in front of you and at the same time be charged for the same reason?”
According to Omotola, “I will not be intimidate because I am a stakeholder in this state, I am a tax payer and via my company, we have paid over N200 million in government fees in 12 months and this can be verified from the account of Masters reality intl concepts Ltd. I deserve respect and not intimidation.”
He called on Sanwo-Olu to intervene in the matter, saying that what “we have today is Ministry of Injustice instead of Justice.”
Efforts to reach Onigbanjo proved abortive as calls made to his phones were not picked.
See below the IGP’s letter
