Contradictions rock FCID probes on Lagos land dispute linked to ex-Abacha CSO

Mustapha

Two separate investigations by different units of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Alagbon, Lagos, have presented contradictory findings on a disputed ownership of a Lekki property linked to Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd.), the former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

The controversy surrounding the property began in April 2015 when an estate developer and Managing Director of Bluecreast Homes Ltd, Alex Ochonogor, through his lawyer, Ademola Owolabi, contacted Al-Mustapha’s lawyer, Adebayo Akeju, for the purchase of the land situated at Block 133, Plot 10 in Lekki Phase 1.

Owolabi said after contacting the Lagos Land Registry to verify the ownership of the land, his client paid the sum of N85m to Akeju, who handed over the necessary documents duly signed by Al-Mustapha.

The lawyer claimed that the documents, given to Ochonogor after payment, included a Demolition Notice dated July 15, 2014, and a Memorandum of Loss which Al-Mustapha had registered on October 22, 2014, for the property, having allegedly lost the original documents during the Abacha era.

However, Saturday PUNCH gathered that less than seven months later, a United States based medical doctor, Eze Obidigwe, emerged to claim the ownership of the same parcel of land.

According to reports, Obidigwe said he bought the land from Al-Mustapha on May 12, 2005.

The doctor thereafter filed a suit registered LD/592LM/2015 at the Lagos State High Court and submitted a petition on the matter to the FCID.

It was learnt that the Special Enquiry Bureau and the General Investigation Section of the FCID carried out separate investigations on the matter.

But findings revealed that the two reports contained several contradictions in the major aspects of the land dispute.