Tunde Alabi, 50, was charged on Wednesday with committing an alleged N8.5 million land fraud before Chief Magistrate Olatunbosun Adeola of the Yaba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.
Alabi is facing four counts bordering on conspiracy, obtaining under false pretences, entry by violence and stealing.
The offences contravened sections 411, 314 and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised) and Section 3 of the Property Protection Law of Lagos State, 2016.
The defendant entered a not guilty plea to the charges.
SP Idowu Osungbure, the police prosecutor, told the court that the defendant committed the crimes in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos in 2020.
Osungbure said the complainant, Nnona Ejiofor, bought two plots of land valued at N8.5m in the said area from the defendant, who claimed it was family land.
She said the defendant issued a receipt of the land sale to Ejiofor, who started constructing a building on the land.
“The defendant unlawfully entered the land and destroyed building materials worth N5m belonging to the complainant and it was later discovered that the defendant was not the real owner of the land,” Osungbure added.
The Chief Magistrate, Adeola Olatunbosun, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum.
Olatunbosun held that the sureties must submit copies of their National Identification Numbers, six months’ bank statements and the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency cards.
The matter was adjourned till August 3, 2022, for mention.