Until
November 8, 2013, 38-year-old Ezeobi Okeke lived happily as a tenant with his
family at Close 39, House 2, Satellite town, Lagos. A native of Osumenyi in Nnewi Local
Government Area of Anambra State, Ezeobi, who is a freight forwarder, now
squats with friends after he was thrown out of his apartment by his landlady.
He informed our reporter that his landlady broke into his apartment in his
absence, packed his property into a waiting truck and zoomed off to an open
field in Festac town where she dumped them. But, before the ejection, he
alleged that his landlady had visited the apartment on November 5 and changed
all the padlocks, while he was away. The woman, according to him, said she had
orders from the court to eject him. She was also said to have broken into his
apartment in the presence of people who claimed to be court sheriffs.
Ezeobi,
who claimed to have occupied the two-bedroom bungalow since 2003 as a tenant
said what led to his predicament started in 2011, when he wanted to renew his
rent and his landlady suddenly refused to collect it from him. He alleged that
his efforts to know where he went wrong proved abortive as his landlady sued
him to court. But, after the legal tussle that followed, the court, according
to him, ruled that he should pay his landlady the arrears and continue occupying
the apartment as a tenant.
With the
court judgment in favour of Ezeobi, he thought the storm was over, but he was
wrong. Her landlady only waited for the most auspicious time to strike. And
that opportunity came on November 8, 2013, two years after the court judgement.
Ezeobi was taken unawares, as he claimed to have travelled to the east with his
family when the woman struck.
Now, the
young man is crying blue murder, calling on the human rights community as well
as the federal government of Nigeria and all well meaning Nigerians to rescue
him from the fangs of the woman who allegedly defied court orders to eject him
in his absence and confiscate his entire property.
Ezeobi
maintained that he never had any problem with his landlady and traced the
genesis of his odyssey to 2011, when the woman suddenly asked him to pack out
of the house without any reason. He said: “Normally, whenever my rent expired,
I would call my landlady for renewal because she stays in Abuja. It is either
she came to collect it by herself or she asked me to give it to her uncle, one
Mr Paul Ufondu. I have never paid through her bank account and that has been
the process until that 2011 when my rent expired and I called her for the
renewal. She said I should pack out of the house. But, I didn’t have any
problem with her. So, I asked her to give me some time to find another
accommodation but she refused and took me to court. When we got to the court,
we presented our evidence before the court and the court ruled that I should
pay the arrears and continue to occupy the apartment.”
Ejection in absentia
But, if
Ezeobi thought he had won the battle, then he made a big mistake because two
years after the court judgement, he was thrown out of the house and his
property confiscated.
“That has
been the situation until November 5, 2013 when she invaded the apartment in my
absence. She broke the entrance gate and changed all the padlocks to my
apartment and left. I informed my lawyer who then called her to a meeting. But
on November 8, she went back again, broke into the apartment, packed all my
property and went away with everything. She told the people around that the
order was from the court,” he said.
Although,
Ezeobi was not around, when he was informed by neighbours that her landlady had
broken into his house, he called his lawyer to go to and witness what was
happening.
He said:
“I called my lawyer to go and find out what was happening. She sent one of her
staff but when the young lawyer went there, the people that claimed to be court
sheriffs refused to identify themselves. They were very aggressive and ready to
fight the lawyer. There was no policeman in their midst but thugs who were paid
to carry out the dirty job. What the lawyer did was to take pictures of what
was happening.”
Whereabouts of property discovered
“When I
came back and saw the vehicle number on one of the pictures, I traced it to the
owner. When I found the owner, he told me where they dumped my property at 21rd
in Festac. When I got there, it was an open field where the woman has a
container, which she uses as a warehouse. So, she dropped all my property
inside the warehouse in the open field at 21 Rd,” he said.
Ezeobi at Agboju police cell
Having
discovered where his property was dumped, his lawyer advised him to report the
matter to the police but when he got to the Agboju police station to report the
incident, he was promptly arrested. He was told that the woman had earlier
reported that he wanted to sell her house. He said the policemen at Agboju
released him on bail when they informed the woman that the man she said wanted
to sell her house was in the police custody and she refused to turn up.
“When I
came back from home after the November 8 incident, my lawyer advised me to
report what happened to the police. But when I went to Agboju Police Station to
make a report, I was promptly arrested. They told me that my landlady had
already written a petition against me that I wanted to sell her house. I told
them that it was not true and challenged them to produce the evidence that I
wanted to sell the house. The police informed her on phone that the man she
accused of planning to sell her house was at the station and that she should
come but she never came. I was detained from morning till around 11:45pm when I
was released. I was not allowed to even write any statement; they only told me
the registration number of the case file is 134,” he narrated.
Doubting
the information that the landlady’s action was backed by court orders, his
lawyer, Mrs Ogbe, went into investigation but alas, her findings, according to
Ezeobi, showed that no court gave such orders. On learning that the order was
actually not from any court, Ezeobi moved back into the apartment with few
chairs and other domestic property that were given to him by one of his
brothers. This bold move allegedly angered his landlady, who mobilised
policemen from Area 2, Onikan and stormed the house, seizing Ezeobi and his
property again.
Three days in Zone 2, Onikan cell
“But 10
days after, another set of policemen came from Zone 2, Onikan Lagos to arrest
me. They seized me from the church and hurled me into the cell where I spent
three days before I was charged to court. They treated me like a common
criminal. When I asked them what I did, they said there was a petition against
me. I told them that the same woman had a petition pending against me at Agboju
police station but when she was called to come and defend her petition, she ran
away. I insisted that they would have signalled Agboju police station to produce
me at Zone 2 headquarters instead of bundling me like a common criminal,” he
stated.
New evidence at Zone 2
Although,
Ezeobi alleged that his landlady could not produce any evidence to buttress her
allegation against him at Agboju police station, she produced some documents at
zone 2 to prove her allegation. But, that paper evidence, according to Ezeobi,
was forged.
Ezeobi collapsed in detention
Ezeobi
alleged that while he was in detention at Onikan, he collapsed on the third
day. He was said to have been rushed to a military hospital where he received
medical treatment. “While in the military hospital, a police officer was
detailed to guard me. The officer slept at the hospital with me and on the
following day when I was discharged, I was charged straight to court. I was
charged for forgery, stealing and conspiracy. The entire hospital bill was paid
by my brother,” he said.
Ezeobi counts losses
“She took
all the vital documents in my life – my international passport, my bank cheque
books and that of my wife, my drivers’ license, my car particulars, my China
Trade Fair identity card, my wife’s international passport and my national
identity card, the certificate of occupancy of my landed property, my academic
certificates and so many other vital documents. I was supposed to travel to
China by the end of December 2013, to reconcile account with my business
partner but I couldn’t go because she has my international passport. Right now,
my car documents have expired but I can’t renew them because she took away
everything. The documents of the house I am building in Satellite are all with
her because I kept everything in a box. In fact, I can roughly estimate what
she took away from the house to be in the neighbourhood of N10million,” he
submitted.
Ezeobi’s lawyer reacts
Speaking
on the matter, Ezeobi’s lawyer, Mrs Ogbe, confirmed that the eviction order was
forged. She said: “We have discovered that the eviction order was not from the
sheriff’s office. She broke into my client’s house and carted away his property.
She keeps posing that she is a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart but I
don’t think anybody is above the law. That’s where I come in. If it was sheriff
that did it, we won’t have any problem with that.”
She
insisted that they got judgment in 2011 instructing her client to pay arrears
and maintain his tenant-ship but regretted that the woman refused to collect
her client’s money, saying it was cursed money.
“Judgement was delivered on November 1, 2011 instructing my client to
pay arrears. I called the woman when my client was ready to pay the money but
she said the money was cursed and she was not going to touch it. She said her
prophet told her any money from my client was cursed. She said he should just
pack out of the house, but I reminded her that court didn’t give her
possession; so she shouldn’t ask my client to pack out. I told her that if she
wanted him to pack, she should start the court process all over again starting
from issuing him a quit notice. She said okay and that was how it was until
this recent incident,” she stated.
Landlady responds
When the
landlady, Mrs Uju Ozoka was contacted, she denied ever refusing to collect rent
arrears from Ezeobi on the ground that it was cursed money and described
Ezeobiu as a liar. She said: “If it is true I rejected his money, the proper
thing would have been to go to that court that gave him judgment to pay there
and have a receipt. Why didn’t he go back to the court to deposit the money if
the court asked him to pay arrears and stay on? You see, the man is a criminal
and a liar. He has never paid his rent to me directly; he has always paid
through my uncle. So, why would he be calling me to pay? He is a liar.”
She said
she asked him to leave her house in 2011 when he could no longer pay his rent
for two years. “As at the time I told him to pack out of my house in 2011, he
owed two years rent,” she said. She also said her decision to eject him from
her house was not just because he owed for two years. She alleged that Ezeobi’s
wife involved herself in some fraudulent financial dealings of about N11million
with some women. She said people living in the neighbourhood called to inform
her that Ezeobi was parading himself as the owner of the apartment and that he
could use it to offset her wife’s debt. She also alleged that the compound was
in a total mess and looked deserted. All those factors combined, made her to
ask him to pack out. “He mismanaged the property. The place looked dirty like a
deserted place. It is not even the property but my integrity that is at stake.
He knows that it is not the property that I am talking about but my house that
is attached to my name. The title document of the property bears my name,” she
said.
But,
commenting on the ejection and confiscation of property, she admitted that
Ezeobi’s property were under her custody and he would only reclaim them after
he had paid his arrears of six years rent, which currently stands at
N2.1million. “The court took a comprehensive list of his property on the day of
eviction. The property is mine because he owes me. The property is not up to
half of the money he owes me. He can’t even lay claim to the luggage. I want to
give it to him so that he can pay me my N2.1million. He is a fool; advise him
to pay me. He can even pay through you, the reporter, if he says he has the
money,” she stated.
On the
allegation that she mobilised policemen from Zone 2, Onikan to arrest Ezeobi
after he moved back to the apartment, she asked: “Whose house did he go back
to; my house or his father’s house? He went back to the same property that I
have rented out. How can you go back to a place where you have been ejected and
another person has paid for? You see what I am saying that he is a criminal and
a nuisance. He is a fool; so let it be in the public domain so that all the
people he had duped in his life will know that the house is not his own and
that he was just a tenant. What is he trying to prove; that he owns the house?
I don’t know if he buried his father’s head inside my house. He went back there
to prove to people that the house is his own. Do you know that till tomorrow,
he still goes to that environment?”
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