Estate Agent jailed by Court for 18 months for N12M theft

A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has sentenced a Lagos estate agent, Olasupo Alimi, to an 18-month jail term for stealing N12m from an unsuspecting land buyer, Mrs. Franscisca Aire-Oalhimire.

Justice Latifa Okunnu, who convicted and sentenced Alimi on Friday, also ordered him to make restitution to the victim in the sum of N12m less than N4m that the convict had earlier refunded to the complainant.

The convict was brought before Okunnu on two counts of Advanced Fee Fraud and theft.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission alleged that the convict obtained N12m from the complainant, being the price of six plots of land at Okun-Ajah in the Lekki Area of Lagos.


He was said to have purportedly sold the land on behalf of one Adekanbi family to the complainant.

Trouble, however, began when months after paying for the land, the complainant, who had travelled to the United States, was told by her lawyer that some persons had started erecting a fence around the land.

Aire-Oalhimire was said to have travelled down to Nigeria consequent upon which the estate agent became evasive.

When he finally surfaced, he was said to have confessed that he had resold the land to another buyer and offered to allocate another piece of  land to the complainant.

The new piece of land was said to belong to one Olukosi family, who however stopped the complainant from taking possession of the land on the grounds that the convict had yet to fully procure the land.
It was said that all efforts to make the convict to refund the complainant proved abortive leading to the legal action.
Giving judgement on Friday, Okunnu absolved Alimi of the Advanced Fee Fraud allegation but convicted him on the charge of theft.

The prosecutor, Zainab Ettu, had stated that the offence contravened Section 390 (8) (b) of the Criminal Code Laws Cap C17, Vol. 2, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003.

The judge held that she found the evidence given by the prosecution’s witnesses to be “cogent, strong and of great weight,” that the convict had resold the land earlier paid for by the complainant.

She held that she found the convict to be deceitful, adding that all the elements to substantiate the allegation of theft were copiously displayed in the conduct of the accused as testified by the witnesses.
Okunnu therefore sentenced Alimi to 18 months jail term commencing from Friday.

The accused was also ordered  to make restitution to Aire-Oalhimire in the sum of N8m.

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