A lawyer, Ms Stella Oyiogu, and three others have been sued at Abuja High Court over alleged transfer of Abuja plot of land belonging to the Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA).
The others include Ibrahim Salmanu, Linus Ukachukwu and Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, a former Secretary General of the association, who are named as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.
In the five- count charge dated Sept. 27, 2024, and filed by Abdurashid Isaku Sidi of the Legal/Prosecution Section, Force Headquarters, Oyiogu is listed as 4th defendant.
Ukachukwu is said to be a land developer, Salmanu, a former president of BOBA, was alleged to have falsely presented himself as a trustee of BOBA.
Barewa College, Zaria is a premier secondary school in the northern Nigeria.
The defendants are alleged to have collaborated among themselves to divest the association of a prime plot of land allocated to it in the Central District of Abuja in 1983.
The land which was in the trust of the Gen. Yakubu Gowon-led Board of Trustees (BoT) was sometimes in 2007 reallocated to Haida Properties that year.
In 2009, the same plot of land was allegedly reallocated to Eagle Aluminum belonging to Mr Linus Ukachukwu, unknown to the BoT of BOBA.
Sometime in 2012, the then Secretary General of BOBA, Prof. Mora, was alleged to have acted on behalf of BOBA to surrender the land to Eagle Aluminium without the consent of the larger National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Gowon-led BOT upon whom the assets of the association are vested in.
The NEC and other members of the association later got to know that the association had lost the land in 2017 and approached the then Minister of FCT, Mohammed Bello, who considered the appeal of the association and restored the title of the land to BOBA.
However, HAIDA Properties and Eagle Aluminium went to court and between them, drawn up an agreement to jointly develop the land without regarding the interest of BOBA whose title to the land had been restored.
Following a petition by a new BOBA executive to the police, the investigation unearthed malpractices on the part of the past officials of the association, including its former Secretary General, Prof Mora and past President, Ibrahim Salmanu, who falsely presented himself as a member of the association’s BOT.
In count one of the charge, ibrahim Saimanu, Linus Ukachukwu, Prof. Ahmed Tijani Mora and Chioma Stella Oyiogu were alleged to have on or about the year 2012 in Abuja conspired among themselves to commit an offence to wit forgery thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 96 and punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code Act.
In count three, Prof. Mora was alleged to have “on or about the year 2012 in Abuja being entrusted with duty of care by the Barewa Old Boys Association as its Secretary General did dishonestly misappropriate the said trust placed on you.
“When you unilaterally without consulting the executives of the said organisation and acting in breach of its constitution on its property, Plot 291 within Central Area (A00) District transmitted a letter you addressed to Eagle Aluminium Industries Ltd referenced BOBA/LM/VOL.1/0510/13 and dated 5th October, 2013 disposing the proprietary interest of BOBA.”
The offence is contrary to Section 311 and punishable under Section 312 of the Penal Code Act.
Oyiogu was also petitioned at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) over alleged misconduct by the association.
