A businessman, Mr. Ebi Otsaye Ogionwo, has challenged a $300,000 fraud charge filed against him at a Federal High Court, Lagos instigated by one Mr. Oluwatosin Adefila.
Ogionwo said the complainant misrepresented the facts and deceived operatives of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, into filing the charge in a purely civil matter (loan contract) that has tremendously benefitted Adefila.
Ogionwo’s lawyers averred that the loan was a business transaction between two corporate entities which he and Adefila executed as corporate representatives, and that it was not a personal loan business transaction undertaken by Ogionwo in his personal capacity.
In the attendant charge, the police claimed that Ogionwo obtained $300,000 from Adefila by false pretences. Speaking through his lawyers, Ogionwo averred that his business relationship with Adefila dates back to 2007 “with full and satisfactory performance”.
He added that Adefila, acting maliciously and deliberately, did not state the nature of the transaction and dispute in 2022 and misled the police into filing the charge to embarrass him or the police ignored the civil nature of the transaction for sinister reasons.
In an affidavit challenging the charge, Ogionwo’s lawyers declared that in 2018, there was a similar transaction between both corporate entities at a 67% interest rate, which was fully repaid. In 2021, another such transaction at 24% interest was concluded and the principal and interest were “fully repaid”, the affidavit said.
However, the loan deal of $300,000 in 2022 has not been fully repaid due to the non-performance of a third-party contractor to the corporate entity (borrower) represented by Ogionwo.
Ogionwo’s lawyers said the complainant was aware of this third-party nonperformance, and of the consequential substantial losses incurred in the transaction, of which the said $300,000 was a fraction, yet he mounted pressure on Ogionwo to pay.
In the affidavit, Ogionwo’s lawyers averred that notwithstanding the challenges, the borrowing entity has paid Adefila $70,412.
The affidavit also noted that “the petition Adefila wrote to Force Criminal Investigation Department was first written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), but Adefila’s lawyers were advised that it was a civil and commercial dispute which should be handled through civil action.”
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