Court Summons Company Boss

A Lagos High Court has ordered the Deputy Group General Manager of Kasmal Properties Limited, Mr. Evaristus Aloko and the company, Kasmal Properties Limited, to appear before the court over an alleged forgery of Deed of Assignment covering 175 acres of land.

Justice Christopher Balogun gave the order following the inability of the prosecution to serve the defendants with the court processes in the suit filed by the Director of Public Prosecution, Lagos State.

When the case was mentioned, state counsel W.A. Quadiri told the court that efforts to serve the defendants with court processes has not yielded any positive result alleging that the defendants may be avoiding service of court process.

He further urged the court to issue court summons on the defendants to compel them to appear in court.

In his ruling, Justice Balogun ordered that the court summons should be issued on the two defendants. Consequently, the matter was adjourned till 23 April for mention.

The Lagos State government, in the suit filed before the court had alleged that the defendants, Evaristus Aloko and Kasmal Properties Limited, sometimes in 2008 at Ogombo Village, Lekki, Lagos State presented a forged Deed of Assignment covering 175 acres of Ogombo land in order to deprive the owner of the land their landed property contrary to Section 467 of the Criminal Code Cap 17, Laws of Lagos State, 2003.

The legal action of the Lagos state government was sequel to a petition written by a Lagos Lawyer, Christian Mocha on behalf of a limited liability company, Instance and Kohl Estate Limited, to the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, Lagos, complaining of forgery of title deed and criminal conversion of property valued at N250 million.

It was alleged that sometime in December, 2000, Instance and Kohl Estate Limited bought ten acres of land from Ogudu Chieftaincy family of Ogombo Village, Lekki in Eti-Osa Local Government area of Lagos State for N4.5 million which was paid to the accredited representative of the family. Thereafter, following the execution of Deed of Assignment, the land was surveyed and the Governor’s Consent was obtained.

However, in December, 2009 it was discovered that the title deed, survey plan and other documents have been forged in order to sell the land to another person.

The petitioner added that all efforts to meet the family to ascertain the cause of its action was met by threats, harassment, intimidation and all sorts of illegalities.