MTN Employees Battle Firms in Court over Alleged Land Fraud

MTN Employees Cooperative Society, through its prosecution witness, Cyril Ilok, has sued two of its former staff; Primavera Engineering and Construction Limited and Mabo Dredging Limited; for allegedly defrauding them of some hectares of land, purportedly meant for the development of Yellow Estate Project, Okun Ajah, Lagos.

The defendants in the case include: Victor Akintunde, Gani Mustapha, Mutairu Babatunde, Primavera Engineering and Construction Limited and Mabo Dredging Limited, who are being prosecuted on an 18-count-charge by the anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for defrauding MTN Employees Co-Operative Society (MEMCOM) members of the sum of N1.4Billion in the guise of buying 39 hectares of land located at Okun Ajah, Lagos.

Ilok, the General Manager with the Business Risk Management Unit of MTN Nigeria narrated to the court, how the defendants stole the money meant to buy landed property to build the proposed “Yellow Estate” for members of the Co-Operative.

Victor Akintunde, according to the prosecution witness, was the president of MEMCOS and Gani Mustapha, the 2nd a treasurer, jointly conspired to steal the money contributed by members of the Co-Operative for the construction of the proposed Yellow Estate.

In the words of Ilok, the 1st and 2nd defendants signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the land owner and the total of 26.5 hectares was signed at the cost of N1, 501,902,666.00. But it was later discovered that only N963.3, 000,000.00, was paid, leaving a difference of N373, 500,000.

“MEMCOS through the 1st and 2nd defendants acquired 39 hectares of land for real estate development but the defendants did not pay for the said numbers of hectares. The defendants only paid for 13 hectares. We later discovered that the 1st and 2nd defendants mismanaged the sum of N1, 357,764,414.

“1st and 2nd defendants were former staff of MTN while the 3rd defendant, Mutairu Babatunde, is the owner of the 4th defendant, Primavera Engineering and Construction Limited. It was discovered that there were a lot of irregularities in the expenses. The total sum of N3.2billion had been collected by the executive of the Corporative led by Akintunde and Mustapha for the purpose of building houses for members of the cooperatives.”

The prosecution witness disclosed that when the irregularities were realized, the new management, appointed KPMG, a professional auditing and accounting firm, to investigate the account of the cooperative for the period between 2008 and 2011.

During this period, he (Ilok) worked with KPMG on the investigation and was also interfacing with the firm and the defendants, after which the report of KPMG was submitted to him to help summarise the issue.  Ilok told the court that it was thereafter that a petition on unpaid monies was written to the EFCC.

“There were 13 hectares of land and 5 hectares which were encumbered. The sum of N427, 114,414,00 was supposed to have been refunded by Primavera Engineering to MEMCOS.  A cheque was however written by Primavera which was returned unpaid. The company however issued another cheque of N300million to MEMCOS and it was cleared. The difference between the amount that was cleared and the one, which was returned, was N127, 114,414.

“The amount said to have been mismanaged is N1,357,764,414.00. It was also discovered that there were un-receipted payments and excess payment documents on five hectares of land which were also defective among the hectares supposedly bought.”

Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, the witness stated that MEMCOS had insisted that the 1st and 2nd defendants refund the defective 5 hectares of land.

He further included that the defendants did not account for what they did with N50million from the money given to them, adding that he was not aware that the 4th defendant was engaged to do other things which include perfection of documents, layout and building approval but that monies were paid to the company through the 1st and 2nd defendants to that effect.

Even the registration of the land, presently, is said to be in contention and ineffective.

“The grouse of the MEMCOS is the failure of the defendants to have the money paid for 5 hectares refunded. The titled document was used by MEMCOS to obtained loan from Federal Mortgage Bank in respect of Yellow Estate project.

“I did not know the amount of loan MEMCOS got from the bank. I was not present at the negotiation between owners of the 39 hectares of land and MEMCOS acting through the 1st and 2nd defendant. They did not account for what they did with the money. But MEMCOS insisted that the over payment should be refunded”, he remarked

The trial judge, Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, has fixed June 1 for continuation of trial at a Igbosere High Court, Lagos.