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The Aniocha North Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been thrown into confusion, with tongues wagging over the integrity of a House of Assembly aspirant allegedly involved in a N40 million fraud scandal, and whose victim has approached a deity (iyi), to get the fraudster-aspirant to pay him his money.
Already, the camps of the sponsors of the fraudster- aspirant in the local government area have been uneasy since the matter involving their man, which is the major talk in the area, was blown open.
The aspirant, an Abuja-based businessman, with specialisation in property acquisition and land development and development is alleged by his victim, who is also his blood relation to have reneged on a written agreement to pay him the balance of a N40million in a N200 million land deal which they struck in Abuja, and which payment was due to him.
But when it became clear to him that the aspirant had put on obdurate pride, and would not pay him his due after perfecting his own side of the deal, the victim, out of indignation took the matter to Iyi, a deity, to prevail on the fraudster-aspirant to pay him the N40 million as agreed.
Seeing the implication of the report to the Iyi, the fraudster- aspirant became jittery and ran to a traditional authority in their area, which, indeed, intervened seeing that the two are brothers, who are also his subjects. The authority called the fraudster-aspirant and his victim to a meeting where each stated his side of the story. The traditional authority in his verdict told the fraudster-aspirant to pay his victim the balance of N39 million having paid N1million earlier, and with a charge on the victim to go to the Iyi and withdraw the case. Despite the authority’s intervention, the fraudster-aspirant did not comply with the directive given to him.
Every effort made to speak with the alleged fraudster-aspirant proved abortive as his telephone line was been switched off for days now. But banneronlinenews.com learnt that the victim, (names withheld) seeing the turn of events, decided to open up to the public on the genesis of the issue and why he could not wait any longer to place a curse on the aspirant-fraudster, whom he said had contravened the mutual agreement with the traditional authority, and which agreement of the time given to pay him had lapsed in March 2018.
Said the victim: “We did a business together, and he was supposed to pay me my due share of the money which he had refused to do. He refused paying me my money as we agreed even though it was a written agreement, which we should honour.
“The business between us was about land wherein he fronted somebody, one of his boys. So he has refused to pay me my money due to me, and now I have to go the first time to the ‘Iyi’ to report him, but he ran to the traditional authority to report me that I reported him to ‘Iyi’.
“The authority invited us. That was on the 11th of December last year. May be he thought that the authority would support him. So when we came that day, we all stated our sides of the matter before the authority. At the end, the authority ruled that he should go and pay me my money and I should go and withdraw the matter from the iyi.
So I went to the Iyi to withdraw it. But when I got there, the Iyi people said that if the traditional authority said that they should withdraw the matter, that there should be a time frame for him to pay me the money. So we now came back, told the traditional authority, who asked me how many months that I needed for him to pay the money. I now told him, three months would be okay, because he is in possession of the land, having gotten all the papers of the land.
“So the three months had lapsed by March ending this year 2018. So I now went to the traditional authority to let him know that this was March ending, I have not heard from the fraudster-aspirant. However, the authority promised to get through to him and get back to me.
“So since that time, we have waited for the fraudster-aspirant to pay me my money, and he hasn’t paid me. The amount involved is N39 million. The whole money was N40 million, he has paid me one million when we started the business; so what is remaining now is N39 million for him to pay up which the traditional authority had ruled on and directed him to pay me and the guy has refused till today to pay me my money despite that directive which made me to withdraw the matter from the Iyi.
“So, having no other option, I then went back to the Iyi and reported the matter again for them to ask him to pay me my money. So that is all what it is.
“Consequently, the Iyi people have requested him on the 21th of August to appear before them on the 1st of September 2018, and I am aware he has been fully communicated through a letter which was served on him through his father’s house at Issele-Uku in line with their tradition. I have a copy of the letter; I will not want to expose it, just like that. It is a traditional thing, you know.
So the fact remains that the fraudster-aspirant is not to be trusted, he is a dubious character that nobody should trust. If he can do this to his own brother from the same quarters in Issele-Uku, because he is from Idumu-Ubeh and I am from Idumu-Ubeh, just a building separates his house from my home. So if he could do this to me, will he not do it to any other Issele-Uku person?”, the victim asked.
The victim further hinted that, the nature of the business they did was on land. He disclosed: “You know, he (fraudster-aspirant) deals on properties and development of properties in Abuja. So there was this land that he was interested in and I was the one who was in charge of the land. So he now negotiated my stake in these hectares of land, by saying that I should just collapse my stake into his own, that he would pay me N40 million. He said I should collapse my stake on that land so that he could take it over, that he wanted the ownership of the land. He pleaded and we agreed on a stake of N40 million; on the basis of which I collapsed my interest and ownership was transferred to him.
So I now collapsed my stake, he went and pushed for it and indeed got the ownership of the land that is valued for over N200 million. Together that land is about six to seven hectares.
“For me to collapse my stake he was supposed to pay me N40 million, which we agreed upon and we wrote an agreement to that effect. He didn’t sign the agreement, instead, he fronted one of his boys called (names withheld). This his boy has always fronted for him in all his deals. Any business that he is doing, it is his boy that fronts for him. In this case, he said because we are brothers, there should not be need for us not to trust each other.
“We have done so many deals before, but he messed up and I decided to be careful in whatever business we do together, hence the need for the agreement in this particular business; however, he was clever to have brought in a front to represent him with the excuse that he wouldn’t like his name to appear on the paper for reasons known to him.
“That was the reason why I went to the Iyi, because he is now saying that his name is not on the agreement, and I now said okay, come to the Iyi and say that you are not involved. He is now running away from the Iyi and instead, he ran to the traditional authority.
Victim continued: “The agreement was actually drafted by his brother, his younger brother, (names withheld) a Barrister. He too is a stakeholder in the business.
“The barrister was supposed to have a share of N15 million, but the barrister made me to know that he has been given two plots of land out of that particular land, in place of that N15 million. But my own now, he has not given me. So his brother is more important than myself, and I am the person that brought the barrister into this business”, he submitted.
For him, the fraudster-aspirant is a very dubious human being, maintaining that no reasonable person should trust him with any serious business. He does not keep to his words. “In all businesses that I have done with him, he doesn’t keep to his words, he is always dodging when it is time to share profits”, the victim stressed.